Fitness Together WOODBURY

THE EIGHT DEADLY PITFALLS
OF EXERCISE AND EATING RIGHT
By Bob Mittleman and Joe Riccardi (F.T.– St. James)
Part 2 of 2

Pitfall #4: Failing to eat frequently enough

The typical American diet, small breakfast, moderate lunch, large dinner, is more a result of habit than it is the result of careful evaluation of human performance and nutritional need. Metabolism is actually the rate at which you convert nutrients into fuel, or in plain English, the speed with which your body burns through food. Five hours between meal is enough to send blood sugar plummeting and to compromise the muscle’s capacity to store and access fuel. Optimally, if the goal is a lean toned body, you’d try to get a “meal” every 3-31/2 hours.

Let’s review. I’ve already brought to light four of the common pitfalls that stand in the way of fitness and weight loss success among those are attempting to “eat right and exercise.”

Pitfall #1: Consuming too much sugar (or refined carbohydrates) on a fat loss program
Pitfall #2: Failing to provide adequate challenge to the working muscles
Pitfall #3: Neglecting protein intake
Pitfall #4: Failing to eat frequently enough

I mentioned there were eight pitfalls, so now we’ll add…the final four!

Pitfall#5: Overtraining

Overtraining simply means exercising beyond the body’s recuperation limits. I meet two primary types of over trainers. There are the over-ambitious novices who want quick results and attempt to emulate the routines performed by individuals with years of muscle stimulating exercise under their belts. The second types are the overly enthusiastic who head “back to the gym” to start “working out again,” not recognizing their bodies are not quite the same as they were back in the day.

The secret to achieving lankness and muscularity involves challenging the body adequately, but taking it past the point of diminishing returns can move you further away from your goals. Train beyond your body’s ability to meet demands through its preferred sources of fuel, and your training might actually lead to a breakdown of muscle tissue, the complete opposite of what most people want. Overtraining leads to a loss of motivation, to irritability, to insomnia, to immune system compromises, and in many cases to injury. Exercise doesn’t have to be an overwhelming all-consuming effort. If you’re not an advanced bodybuilder or fitness competitor, you don’t need to pile the massive weights on the leg press machine for endless sets, nor do you need to crank out hundreds of repetitions of bench presses. You simply have to stimulate muscle, feed the body, and allow all the systems of the body to rest and recuperate.

Pitfall #6: Believing daily activity “counts” as exercise

Sure, I know women would love it if shopping burned enough calories to keep them fit, and men would wish for the act of driving the golf cart becoming a great tummy trimmer, but that isn’t reality. If you “shop” on a daily basis, or play golf nearly every day, the process of adaptation has already taken place. If you are very active at work, that’s fantastic, but it doesn’t guarantee consistent improvement. When the body adapts to the demand, the progress is guaranteed to cease. It’s important, regardless of what you do in the course of a day, to set aside some time to challenge the muscles against progressive resistance.

That doesn’t mean back off on your activity. Of course physical activity will serve you well, but don’t believe it’s a substitute for focused exercise sessions devoted solely to improvements in body composition and in cardio respiratory function.

Pitfall #7: Failing to ingest calories sufficient to maintain metabolism and supply fuel for activity

A 150lb man at rest for a 24-hour period, would burn approximately 1500 calories just to keep his brain functioning, his heart beating, and his internal organs, pursuing life-sustaining metabolic processes. Add in to the equation movement, exercise, stress, and work and of course caloric requirements further increase. The old and misleading adage, “eat less to weight less,” has sent dieters flocking toward calorie deprivation. The challenge lies in keeping energy stores full and keeping metabolism stoked when you’re barley taking in enough calories to sustain function at rest. Once you come to understand that eating supportively, eating “thermic” (calorie burning) meals frequently throughout the day, can actually boost metabolism, can make the body more efficient at burning through food and releasing fat, and can provide fuel to keep energy levels at a consistent high, you’ll quickly develop some new eating habits. Ideally you’ll divide your daily calories into six balanced meals allowing for optimal use of nutrients and a continuous stimulation of metabolic activity.

Pitfall #8: Failing to schedule down time

Think of exercise as the stimulus that causes your body to make positive adaptations…as you rest. By “rest,” I’m not only referring to sleep, although that should certainly be adequate if you want to see results. I’m also referring to the pursuit of a relaxing hobby, days off from work, visiting a park or a beach, or sitting at home enjoying some music. There is a crucial balance between stress and recovery, and while positive stress (exercise) properly applied can lead to the body making exceptional progress, it will only do so if there is adequate “down time.” It might be helpful to realize that there are opposing forces at work, and if the balance isn’t quite right, the results can be perilous. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and has been referred to as the “stress hormone.” During periods of elevated stress, cortisol levels are increased. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, which means it allows the body to cannibalize its own tissue. It does have an important purpose. The gradual breakdown of tissue allows you to continuously build new, healthy cells. Cortisol also makes certain that if the body’s energy needs suddenly go up due to an extreme stress, or if due to trauma eating is a challenge, there are plenty of amino acids floating around to be converted into glucose and used as fuel. We access those amino acids in a stress-induced state by breaking down muscle. There are other hormones that are more geared toward enhancing positive response. Growth hormone has received much attention lately and people have come to believe it’s a drug. It isn’t a drug, but a human hormone that is produced by the pituitary gland and it plays a vital role in anabolism (tissue building) and protein synthesis as well in keeping metabolic processes at optimal levels of performance. Growth hormone production is increased when you rest, and further increased when you enter deep sleep. Without adequate rest and sleep as cortisol-dominant environment can prevent you from seeing the results you’re working so hard to achieve.

With the eight pitfalls exposed, the path to your ultimate success should be clear. Eat supportive meals frequently, exercise enough to provide challenge, maintain some regular aerobic activity, and schedule in relaxation and recuperation time, and reshaping your body becomes a simple task.