OPERATION RE-BURN ..... PHASE III

Objectives

At the end of this phase, you should complete the following: 

• Learn and perform your first Circuit Training (CT) workout
• Identify ur caloric needs (the minimum number of calories u need)
• Adapt healthy eating habits (and avoid bad ones)

1 -  Circuit Training (CT)

If I have to recommend only one workout for effective weight loss, I would recommend circuit training. CT is very effective, it requires little time (15-20 minutes per session). It requires little training, and it can be designed to fit anyone’s needs, goals, fitness levels, and available facilities.

This makes CT suitable for beginners or professionals, women or men, young or old, with or without equipment, anywhere, anytime. This is the beauty of CT, it’s very effective and highly customizable.

Your First CT workout

As you can see from the figure below, the guy starts with Squats, followed by pushups, followed by Steps, and  so on till he returns to squats. As if he is running in a circle, or a “circuit”, hence the name. The exercises are called “stations”, and so the guy will be moving through the stations with little to no breaks. 

 (Click to enlarge)

Do not panic, I am not asking you to perform the above circuit, you are not ready. Instead, you can begin with a very simple - but just as effective - circuit. Your circuit contains only three stations, they are:

• Crunches
• Jumping jacks 
• Legups

Now, I am sure you might be familiar with these exercises/activities, but being familiar is not enough for CT, you must perform these activities in proper form to maximize the benefits and avoid injury, and so this is going to be your homework before you begin your CT.

Learning Proper Form

Fortunately, this is very easy to do. For example, if you want to learn more about pushups, all you have to do is to type “pushups videos”, or “pushups, proper form, videos” in your favorite search engine, and you will find plenty of videos with instructions. You can do the same for other activities.

All in all, you need to learn proper form for the following activities before you begin your first circuit: Pushups, Crunches, Stretching, Warm-up and Cool-down, and Jumping Jacks. In case you don’t have access to the web (for whatever reason), then you can use the gym. Remember those single entry passes?

On your next visit to the gym, you can ask someone (one of the trainers) to comment on your pushups (or crunches, etc), and whether you are doing it properly or not. Once you are familiar with these activities, you’d be ready for your first CT.

The first CT session.

Begin your session with warm-up & stretching. Then, drop down and do 4 Crunches, then get up and do 15 jumping jacks, then drop down again and do 4 LegUps, then rest for a minute. This would be one cycle. Perform two cycles, and then finish your session with cool down & stretching, and that’s it.

On your first week, you will do only 1 or 2 CT sessions, in each session you will do only 2 cycles. The rep count for Jumping jacks (JJs) is always multiplied by 4, so when the rep count is 3, the rep count for JJs is (3 x 4 = 12), and so on. 

On week two, try adding more cycles in each session, or try adding reps, and work ur way up. In the first few weeks of CT however, i suggest u take it easy on urself and go slow, remember, it's a new habit and u still need to get used to it. 

In the next phase, we will talk on how to further enhance the efficiency of CT, and how it could be a great tool for weight loss if combined with effective cardio (how it can be used to make ur cardio far more effective). 

2 -  Determining your Caloric Needs

As we discussed in Phase II .... your caloric needs are based on three components ... your Basal Metabolic rate, the energy needed for physical activities, and the energy needed to process food.. 

Determining your caloric needs could be a very easy task, all you have to do is search this term "Determine your caloric needs" on the web and you will find plenty of websites that will provide easy calculators whereby you'd be answering simple and straight questions, and the site would do the calculations in the background (and save u from all that math) and give u the outcome 

Figuring out the BMI and the TEF are straight forward, they are based on your physical attributes (age, gender, height, etc) .. and therefore very simple to determine. but figuring out the energy for physical activities are not that simple. 

You see, a chicken and egg situation, exercise needs calories, but u want to exercise, because if u dont, you wont burn calories, and therefore you wont lose weight, confused already? 

Remember .. why r u doing ANY workout? 

Let's take another look at the example below

• John needs 2,000 calories per day
• He cut his food intake to just 1500 calories
• However, his body adapted to this, and reduced its caloric needs
• But, John performed some exercise to increase his caloric needs
• As such, his current his caloric needs are: 2,000 - 500 + 500 = 2,000
• So, currently, John’s body is burning (2,000 out – 1,500 in )= 500 cals
• As such, John is losing 500 calories worth of fat every day.

Therefore, the REAL point of workout is to maintain ur caloric needs and avoid starvation ... something that would happen if u simply cut on ur food (alone). unfortunately, the example above is not entirely accurate, i simplified intentionally to make a point (then) but now u need to understand the bigger picture. 

When john planned to do his workout, he needed to include the calories needed for workout for his "caloric needs", then later when he cuts down on food, he needs to cut the difference. here is the same example, this time properly done .... 

• Based on John's physical attributes, and the amount of workout he PLANS to perform .... John figured he needs 2,500 calories per day
• He decided that 500 calories per day is a good, balanced cut off. 
• So, he consumes only 2,000 calories.
• Therefore, his body now needs 2,500 but is getting only 2,000, or (2,000 - 2,500) = - 500
• Since John is working out, as planned, his body will not go into starvation
• Also, John is careful not to consume more than 2000 cals a day
• Therefore, John is burning 500 calories worth of fat every day. 

So, let's recap how u gonna go about this, first review your daily activities (recreated below)

06:00 – 07:30      Wake up, morning chores (shower, shave, Make breakfast, take out the trash)

07:30 – 08:30      Drive to work (Park at a distance and walk more, take the stairs)

08:30 – 05:00      Work (take a 5 minute  walk every hour, or do 5/10 pushups)

05:00 – 06:00      Drive home

06:00 – 07:00      Workout hour

07:00 – 08:00      Evening chores (shower, Make dinner, Do the laundry, Wash the dishes, etc)

08:00 – 11:00      Family time (Watching TV, etc), followed by sleep

Which u created in Phase I (making workout a natural habit), now looking at ur daily activities, classify ur activities (seated, walking, standing, vigerous workout, etc) and roughly identify the duration for each activity. u dont need to be minute specific ... a good estimate is fine here .... try to determine ur  average duration of each type of activity.

Then, when u go these website and ask u to determine "how physically active u are ?" based on your daily activities, you would be answer that question. the terms "idle, Casual, Active, occasional" are directly related to ur weekly activities. if u r really active, then choose it, and so on.

Then, once u choose the proper description, the website will calculate and return the number for you. I suggest u try multiple sites to get an accurate outcome, perhaps u could choose the average of all.

But wait, there is a catch

if u chose "active" then you have to be active. because simpley speaking, if choose "active" but remain "idle" then u would consum MORE calories that what u really need. In which case you will gain weight.

So, for example, my own Diet plan calls for me to consume 2,500 calories a day, but this plan also requires me to workout 5 days a week, with a combination of Cardio, CT, and Weight lifting exercise. therefore, i know that for me to reach my target does not depend on just dieting, but on being extremely disciplined when it comes to workout. 

3 -  Adopting Healthy eating habits

Now we discuss your second right of healthy food, eating food at the right eating habits. Even if you eat the right amounts of the right food, but ignore the eating habits, you could really hamper your efforts, if not make them useless altogether.

Never ever skip Breakfast            

I know, you’ve probably heard this before, that’s because it is a great advice. You see, skipping breakfast will put you directly into the starvation mode. That is why I said “never ever”. 

After a long night sleep, your stomach has been empty for many hours. However, your body will not go to starvation, because it is designed not to do so while you are asleep. Instead, your metabolism will be maintained at a certain level. That’s how we can go to sleep for many hours uninterrupted. 

But as soon as you wake up, your body will be expecting food real soon, if you don’t eat anything within 60 minutes, your body will go into starvation mode. After which, any further efforts for weight loss, such as morning chores, getting active, etc. would be greatly hampered, if not null. 

I know, I know, in the morning you don’t have an appetite for food and you may not feel like eating, well, the solution is easy. Just eat (or drink) something, just to prevent the starvation, and later eat your proper breakfast, but whatever you do, you cannot skip your breakfast.

Do not starve yourself

Again, we already discussed this. You should not go more than 3 hours between meals. Actually I usually eat every two hours, but if I am busy or stuck, then I target for 3 hours. It is my absolute maximum.  

Even if you are not really hungry, you must eat within 2 to 3 hours. In fact, that’s the point. You see, the natural result of starving yourself is you eating like a pig later. Furthermore, if you are starving, it will be very difficult for you to eat healthy food, or proper amounts.

Do not eat a heavy meal before sleep

There are two reasons why you should not eat right before sleep. The first is obvious, you are going to sleep, meaning your body will not do any physical work. Therefore, that energy you just consumed will not be used, i.e. will be stored as fat. The rule is simple, no heavy meals 2 hours before sleep. 

The second reason why you should not eat right before sleep is comfort. If your stomach is full, you might not be comfortable sleeping altogether. And after processing the food, your body might produce human waste (especially urine), that would need to be released. All of which could disturb your sleep.

Eat only because you are hungry

This may sound funny, but it’s true. There many situations where we eat for no reason. For example, while watching a movies at the cinema (an absolute NO by the way), at coffee shops, while watching TV, in meetings, when depressed. In all of these situations (and many more), you are really eating extra. 

In all of these situations, you are eating extra calories, because these meals do not really count as real meals, they are just “part of the fun/experience”. You are still going to eat real meals later. So, the rule is simple, DON’T. You can either skip, or greatly reduce the amount of food you eat there, or switch to healthy alternatives (mineral water, black coffee, fruits, etc). 

Welcome to the small meals eating plan

If you look closely, you will notice that all of the above advises are connected. You cannot skip breakfast, you have to eat every few hours, you cannot over-eat, and you have to eat only for hunger, i.e. no snacks. If you put them all together, you will find yourself applying the small meals eating plan. 

Obviously, you have to reduce meal size if you want to eat every two hours. If you don’t, you will put on a gigantic amount of fat. In other words, you have to switch from the traditional 3 large meals a day eating plan to 6 to 7 small meals a day eating plan.

The small meals plan is a weight loss technique on its own. Meaning you can apply this technique alone without modifying your diet, or doing any workout, and you still going to lose weight. I have already tried it for a complete month, I managed to drop 2 kilos in that month. 

The effectiveness of the small meals plan comes from many reasons, first it prevents you from starving yourself, secondly it prevents you from over eating, and because you eat at specific times with no snacks in between, you don’t eat any junk (you eat only for hunger). Finally, since your body is working all day processing food, you will burn more calories due to the Thermic Effect of Food.

However, there is a catch !

There is a fundamental drawback with the small meals plan, it's YOU. In order for this plan to work, you must be disciplined, you cannot skip any meal, and you must stick to the small size of the meal. If you falter on either point, the effectiveness of this plan will be gone.

In the end, the problem is habits. You are used to the traditional 3meals plan and it’s going to take some time (a couple of weeks maybe) for you to get used to the small meals plan. 

OK, how small is small?

At the end of the day, your small meal plan must provide you with your daily caloric needs. if ur small meals gives u more calories, you will gain. therefore, knowing your caloric needs (the previous step), all u have to do is divide that number over 6 or 7, and you will get the proper meal size. This brings us to the next question ....

How do i know my meal size is appropriate ?

 

For example, if u determined that ur average meal size is 300 calories, how do u make ur meal 300 calories ??? .... in order to do so, you need to develop what is called "calorie sense" ... or the ability to determine the caloric size of food by only looking at them ....  this will do together in the next phase, which will also be our final phase.

SO ..... It's Time To Go to WORK.

OK, by now you have a complete picture of you need to do, here is a refresher.

• Learn and perform your first Circuit Training (CT) workout
• Identify ur caloric needs (the minimum number of calories u need)
• Adapt healthy eating habits (and avoid bad ones)

Just remember, that awkward feeling of discomfort, which you are feeling right now is perfectly normal and is temporary. Remember our discussion in “Before you begin”?. You just need to make an initial effort, and the more familiar you get, the more comfortable you will get.

So .... all the best, and i will keep in touch !!

OPERATION RE-BURN ..... PHASE II

Objectives

At the end of this phase, you should complete the following: 

• Identify sources of good food around you
• Learn how to do Effective Cardio (Cardio aimed for Weight loss)
• Learn "what u need to know" about Calories

1 -  Identify sources of good food around you 

At this point of the Operation, we are still focusing on ur First Right, which is the Right Food, since u (hopefully) quit Junk food and Sugar, u need to know what to switch to, u need to switch to healthy food.

Healthy food is all around you, it’s in the grocery store where you buy your food, in the restaurant you frequent, (even in fast food joints, but very limited). So, all you need to do is learn where to look. In this section we will discuss exactly that. Let’s begin with the easy one; restaurants.

Food from restaurants

The next time you visit a restaurant, survey its menu, and create an inventory (in your mind) of the available food options. From the knowledge you gained from Phase I, you should identify what is healthy food, and what is not.

For example, let’s take a fish restaurant. They offer two types of fish platters, fried and grilled. Which one do you think is healthier?, let’s think about it, they are both fish, the exact same food, only the cooking method is different. If you guessed grilled then you’d be OK.

Grilled would be healthier because you have no idea what oil they used when they fried the fish. Besides, no matter what oil they use, fried means extra fat. So, if I was choosing, I would choose grilled. How about drinks? (cold drinks)

Your Choices are "fruit Juice, carbonated drinks, and mineral water", which one you think is healthiest? The answer is Mineral Water. Juice is better than carbonated drinks, but unfortunately, most juices are soaked with sugar, which is not good, remember?

Why stop there, let’s keep going. The table below shows a list of average food you find in restaurants, and if it’s healthy or not, and what you can do to make them healthy options. 

 

(Click on Image to enlarge it)

So, as you can see, you can apply the knowledge you gained from Phase I, you can identify healthy options in the menus of your favorite restaurants. Perhaps you could modify your orders a little bit to make it healthier, you could ask for less (or no) sugar, no Mayo, and so on.

Another thing you can do when you are eating out is to try new restaurants. Perhaps other places serve better and healthier food options. Some restaurants specialize in grilled food, others in fried food, this makes it obvious, right? 

Food at home

Unless you plant and grow your own food, eating healthy at home is all about improving your grocery list. Most likely you buy food from a grocery shop or a market. Either you buy it ready to eat, or buy the ingredients and cook at home.

Improving your grocery shopping list

Once again, you need to apply the knowledge you gained from the previous section to buy only healthy food options. First, you need to do some research on the web and identify food sources of low GI index foods, foods low in sugar, and foods in healthy fats.

Healthy grocery items include fresh white meats (chicken and poultry), fresh fruits and Veggies. Beans, seeds, and nuts. None fat dairy products (milk, cheese, and yogurt). Whole grains (bread, pasta, cereals, and rice). Finally, healthy oils, such as sunflower cooking oil, sunflower margarine, and olive oil.

Unhealthy grocery items include red meats, frozen (to be fried) foods, such as burger patties, hot dogs, and fries (big NO). Canned fruit salads and juices (Loaded with sugar). Whole fat dairy products, fruity yogurts and drinks (even if non-fat, avoid them because they are loaded with sugar)

Of course, anything loaded with sugar is banned, these include sugars, ice creams, chocolates, potatoes, and corn, crackers biscuits, soups, TV food (microwave) foods, and others.

In your research, you could also find some wonderful recipes for healthy foods, that include healthy food items, learn about these. Make it a target to learn a new recipe every week. Then identify its ingredients, and then include those in your shopping list. This way, you are making the switch to healthy food while at the same time enjoying your food.

Unfortunately, sometimes you have no choice but to buy canned food, or bottled food, that’s because you cannot shop every day, so you might need to buy food items that can last outside a fridge. Therefore, in order to buy the healthy options of canned/bottled foods, you need to learn how to read the food labels properly.

Reading food labels properly.

By reading the label you’d be able to tell if a certain food is healthy or not. Reading the food label is a skill you must gain if you are serious about weight loss. This skill allows you – in a flash – to determine if a food item is healthy or not.

There are three areas of information you would be looking for when you are reading a label. How many calories, how much fat there is (and its type), and how much Carbs (and its type). For now, however, we will skip the calories, because at this point we don’t care about the amount of food, only the type.

For now, all we care about is the fats and carbs and their types. In order to so, let’s take a look at some food label samples and see how we can do that.

Below are two samples of a food labels. Different countries/food manufacturers might have different labels, your job is to extract the information you need, regardless of the type of the label.

                                      (a)                                                      (b)   

(click on picture to view large)

The 100gm values, your instant calculator

On label (b), you can see that the values are shown in two sizes, one for the serving size, and one for 100 grams of the food item. Personally, I believe the 100gms values to be really helpful. It can tell you instantly if the food is healthy or not.

As you can see in 100gms values of the label, there are 12.4 gm protein, 1.4gm fat, and 67gm carbs. That’s all lovely and all, but since these numbers are out of 100gms, they are also percentages. Meaning this food has 12.4% [(12.4/100)*100%] protein, 1.4% fat, and 67% carbs.

This is called a weight ratio. It’s a good starting point to learn if food is good or bad, or if you are comparing two food items. In fact, you could go further, you could see that saturated fats are a meager 0.3%, sugar is only 3.3%, and fiber is 11%. You can learn all that by simply reading the 100gms values.

Sadly, not all labels contain the 100gm values. You then have no choice but to calculate the percentages. So, on the label (a), you can calculate the percentage of protein by multiplying its grams by 4, then dividing the result by the total calories, or 3x4 = 12, then 12/90 = 0.133 or 13.3% of protein.

Why 4?, because 1gm of protein provides 4 calories (more on this later). Now, I know I know, no one likes math, but these are simple calculations, after a couple of times, you’d get used to them. Also, most of the time, you would need do this only once (for each food item). So, take it easy.

The Daily Values indicator

I will make this very blunt. I find this indicator very useless, I never used it. It is made based on a lot of assumptions that most of the time do not apply to you. So, I recommend you simply ignore it.

2 - Learn how to do Effective Cardio workout

Most people have the general idea that Jogging for 40 minutes a day = weight loss. 

Unfortunately, that is not accurate. Yes, jogging 40 minutes a day will help, but only because it will do a lot of great thing to your health first, then it will help u lose weight. 

That's because, general Cardio workout can be aimed for two purposes, general health OR weight loss. if u just simply jog for 40 minutes, u will improve your general health, and as a side effect, you will drop some weight.

But if u really want to focus ur Cardio for weight loss (and general health as a side effect), then u need to perform an effective cardio workout.

So, what IS an effective cardio workout? 

Effective Cardio is any activity that elevates your heart rate to the “Purple Zone” (figure below), or to 65% - 85% of the maximum heart rate for at least 20 minutes (the absolute minimum). It does not matter what you do, you could walk, jog, dance, swim, play, etc. as long as it satisfies these requirements.

(click to enlarge)

When you walk or jog leisurely, you heart rate (beats per minute) is not elevated to the right level. As such, it won’t be sufficient for weight loss, it will be good only for general health. Therefore, to make your cardio effective, you need to maintain your heart rate at the right level, the purple zone for the duration of 20 or 30 minutes. 

How do I know if I elevated my heart rate to the right level?

You need to learn how to monitor your heart rate. There are several techniques you could apply here. You could measure your own pulse (like a doctor), you could use a heart rate monitor (in a watch), or you could simply observe your breathing.

It doesn’t matter what technique you use, as long as you use it. Doing Cardio without keeping track of your heart rate is like driving aimlessly, you will not get anywhere. All of the above methods work just fine, it is really a matter of preference. But I found monitoring your breathing to be the most convenient and cost effective, it goes like this:

You are below Cardio level if:       Your breathing is normal, you can speak normally just as before workout, and you barely broke a sweat. Increase. 

You are at the cardio level if:        Your breathing is slightly elevated, yet you can still talk/sing,  your heart is beating faster, but not pounding. Maintain.

You are Above the cardio level if:  You are out of breath (not enough oxygen), you cannot talk/sing out loud  and your heart is pounding. Slow down.  

Learning to monitor ur breathing 

Mastering this technique might be tricky in the beginning, so you need some help. Luckily, help is available. You can use the gym to practice this technique. Many (if not all) gyms offer a single-entry (or daily) pass, meaning you can pay a small fee and enter the gym for a day and use all of its facilities without committing to a long term deal.

First, use the image above to identify ur heart rate range, based on ur age. For example, if you are 20 yrs old, then your target heart rates will be from 110 to 130 bpm.Then, on your next visit to the gym, get on a good cardio machine and start walking/jogging or cycling, the built-in sensors will measure heart rate and display it on the monitor.

Keep going till you reach your target rate. Once you do, just keep a mental note of your body condition at that moment, i.e. your intensity and breathing at that moment. So, the next time you exercise in the park or anywhere else, all you have to do is recreate that condition. 

 

WHAT is the best Cardio for weight loss?

As we agreed above, ANY exercise is good enough for weight loss, as long as u can elevate ur heart rate for 30 to 40 minutes. So, technically speaking, ANYTHING is good. However, Cardio could be as boring as hell, especially if u have to do it for an extended period of time.

The following points are based on my experience, you may or may not agree with some of the points below, that’s ok. It simply means your experience is different than mine. Also, you may have already determined what’s best for you, if this is the case, then by all means go ahead a use it.

Walking          

Pros     Walking is an excellent beginner workout. All you need is some comfortable clothing, and you’d be ready. It is also an excellent warm up (and cool down) to other exercises.

Cons   In order to raise your heart rate to the right level, you may need to walk faster and longer than usual, this could mean longer exercise sessions, which may not be possible for everyone.

Jogging

Pros    Jogging is ideal to being an effective Cardio, it is a full body workout, so the ability to reach target heart rate is there. 

                                               

Cons  If u are a beginner, or too overweight, then Jogging could be a challenge, so in this case u may need to combine periods of Jogging with Walking, and gradually try to increase the jogging period ... in other words, you may need to "condition ur body" for jogging

Cycling

Pros      The primary advantage of cycling is in the fact that your body is supported by the seat. This greatly reduces the weight exerted on your legs, and so reduces joint pain. 

                                               

Cons   Cycling would be difficult while climbing up a hill, especially for beginners. Also, Overweight people might find it difficult to balance on a bicycle, or bear the pain of the bicycle seat. 

Swimming

Pros    Swimming is great. Your body weight is fully supported by the water so there is NO impact at all. Swimming works out the whole body (legs and arms), so it burns the most calories. It is also a great exercise if your leg was hurt or injured (rehab)

Cons    Effective swimming is not easy, you need to learn the proper breathing technique from young age to achieve the benefits of swimming, remember cardio is all about breathing, so if you are holding your breath underwater, then you will not benefit from swimming. 

Dancing/Aerobic/Sports Clubs

Pros    Joining a dance/aerobic club is a lot of fun. Not only would you be working out, but you would have a great time as well, not to mention learning a new skill.

Cons    You need to join a club, so everything we discussed on gyms applies here, you may need to experiment before committing. Some instructors pause to teach a move here and there. If this happens a lot , then it will be difficult for you to maintain your heart rate at the right level. 

Ok, once again, the choice here is purely personal. The important point to remember is convenience, your options must make cardio comfortable, fits smoothly within your day, and enjoyable.

Ok, how do I experiment?

Right now, you are doing your walking 3 days a week, and as we discussed before in step 2, you are doing it in the local park, or around your neighborhood/home. Well, now you can try some other places,  Remember those single entry passes you can get at any gym?, you can use those.

One day you can do your walking in the outdoors (in the streets) early in the morning, another day you could do it in a gym (use a single entry pass) after work, and yet on another day you could try another gym. In other words, for the next two weeks, you could try as many combinations as you can.

Furthermore, you could use these single entries to compare between gyms. Or to see if going to the gym is worth it in the first place. Remember, it’s not just about the gym, it’s also about convenience, time availability, parking availability (if you have to drive to the gym), and so on.

WARNING: Don’t buy anything yet!

You might feel great after your first visit to the gym that you would be tempted to buy a gym membership, or an expensive machine (for home use), so I will make this simple, DON’T. Let’s make an agreement, you will not buy anything expensive until the end of step5, deal?

Performing an effective cardio workout

Regardless of what cardio exercise you choose, be it jogging, cycling, etc. you still need to perform it properly to maximize its benefits and eliminate injury. So, do this on your next cardio.

Warm up

Start with slow movement, brisk walk, slow cycling, etc. the point here is to get some juice flowing in your muscles and joints. This should last for five minutes or so. Then, stop and do some Stretching. Once your muscles are warmed up and stretched, then you are ready for your workout.

Go gradual

You need to reach the target heart during your workout and keep it there for at least 2 minutes. Failure to do so will simply void your exercise. I mean, I it will still good for general health and all, but it will be useless for weight loss.

Build your fitness gradually

In the beginning, it could be difficult to even reach the target heart rate, let alone maintain it for 20 minutes. So, you may need to take it gradually. This means you should try to target to reach target heart rate and maintain it for just 5 minutes. Then, gradually increase this time week by week. before you know it, you will be able to reach 60 minutes.

Cool Down

You cannot abrubtly stop your cardio, you need to slow down and allow your muscles to cool off naturally, if you don’t, you will have many muscular problems the next day.

3 - Learn "what u need to know" about Calories

But, how small the meal should be?, this depends on how many calories you need. We will discuss calories next. In the next phase (Phase III), we will identify exactly that. but for now, let's learn a bit more about Calories.

Energy generated for burning food is measured in many units, either Joules or Calories, depending on where you live. For the purposes of this discussion, we will use Calories.

However, on food labels you might find different variations to the word calorie, you might see Calories, calories, Cals, cals, Kilo calories, Kcals. These variations might look confusing. But, all you really need to understand here is that all these terms mean exactly the same thing: calories. If you accept this, then you can skip the next few paragraphs and jump to “Calories from food”, otherwise, read on.

Warning: Scientific Jargon (Skip to “Calories from food” if you don’t want to be bothered)

The Calorie, Kilo calorie, Cals, Kcals,  refers to the large calorie, the kilogram calorie. The  energy needed to increase the temperature of one kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Whereas the calorie, with a small c, is the energy needed to increase the temperature of one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.

  

In food energy measurement, however, only the large calorie is used, that’s because a small calorie is not significant enough to affect the human body. Unfortunately, using capitalization or adding the prefixes K and kilo is not adhered to by everyone in industry. 

Some argue that small calories do not affect the human body, so why bother to distinguish between them in the first place. As such, understand this, on food labels, the following terms, Kcals, Cals, cals, calories, Kcalories mean exactly the same thing, calories.

Calories from food

1 gram of protein or carbohydrates (regardless good or bad) provides us with 4 calories, while 1 gram of fat provides us with 9 calories (regardless good or bad). Vitamins and  minerals do not have any calories. 

Therefore, if you know the size of the meal (how many grams), then you can calculate its energy in a simple calculation. On the other hand, if you know how many calories your body needs, then you can adjust the meal size to match your caloric needs. Complicated? Let’s take an example. 

If you know that one apple contains 70 calories, then you’d know every time you eat an apple, you’d get 70 calories worth of energy. On the other hand, if your target is to consume only 35 calories, then all you have to do is eat half of that apple. 

The Metabolic Rate

We already agreed that if you consume more calories than what you need, you will put on weight. So, the question is, how many calories do we need?, and how do we find out? 

The answer comes from the metabolic rate, or the amount of calories your body needs in an hour, a day, or any other time frame. The higher the metabolic rate, the higher the calories you’d need. The amount of calories we need in an hour is referred to as the hourly metabolic rate, and so on.

The Metabolic rate is made of three components, they are:

• The Basal (or Basic) Metabolic Rate (the BMR), which is the minimum amount of energy needed to sustain your life and support internal organs, such as the heart, brain, liver, lungs, etc. It is the energy burnt while we are at complete rest, like sleeping or watching TV. 
• Energy required for physical activities, is the energy needed to move muscles, etc. It is the energy we need to walk, talk, play sports, drive a car, and perform any other physical activity.
• The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is the energy needed to process food. The energy needed to chew, igest and metabolize food. It usually counted as about 10% of the amount of calories we consume.

So coming back to the apple example, even though it contains 70 calories, in reality you will get only 63 calories, the other 7 cals (10% of 70) was used to digest that apple. 

OK, how do I determine my Metabolic rate

Based on your age, gender, height, etc. the BMR is determined. Then this value is adjusted to incorporate your physical activities, based on how active you are. Then that number is further adjusted to incorporate the TEF. The final number that comes out would be your metabolic rate.

We will do all that in the Next Phase .... for now however, let's recap ... 

SO ..... It's Time To Go to WORK.

OK, by now you have a complete picture of you need to do, here is a refresher.

• Identify sources of good food around you
• Learn how to do Effective Cardio (Cardio aimed for Weight loss)
• Learn "what u need to know" about Calories

Just remember, that awkward feeling of discomfort, which you are feeling right now is perfectly normal and is temporary. Remember our discussion in “Before you begin”?. You just need to make an initial effort, and the more familiar you get, the more comfortable you will get.

So .... all the best, and i will keep in touch !!