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There’s been a couple of good posts this week by the guys in the fitness health network. All of us seem to be coming to grips with our weight loss plans. Here are a few of the entries that I found myself relating to this week.
I’ve found myself back in the gym lately, but without a personal trainer. And I’ve been struggling to find a routine. I’ve got several routines that were given to me by previous trainers, but I’m finding them either boring or too easy. Lazy Man and Health wrote a post about beginning circuit training. While it’s not a terribly detailed post, it does touch on the biggest benefit, at least in my mind, of circuit training–keeping your heart rate up for the entire workout instead of having huge fluctuations that occur during typical work/rest cycles that a lot of us do at the gym. Keeping that heart rate up burns more calories, which helps you see results quicker!
I think all of us over at the FHN are over weight and concentrating on creating a calorie deficit. No Calories Needed is working on a food budget. The most interesting thing about his post is the very different caloric requirements that he obtained from the 5 or 6 different online calculators. This is a huge problem. In fact, he found a 1000 calorie/day difference between some of the calculators. If you’re trying to maintain a 500 calorie/day deficit, this might pose some problems. I think the best way to solve it is to pick a number and try it for two weeks. If you lose two pounds during those two weeks, you’re right on. If not, you may need to adjust your caloric intake for your specific metabolic rate.
And Fat Man Unleashed had a reader call him out on making excuses for not losing weight–and he lost two pounds this week. This happened to JD a few months ago too and really kicked him into gear. Now Israel has had some success too. It just reminds me that one of the main reasons for these blogs is that our readers support and motivate us to get the job done. We all thank you guys for that.
Next week, I plan on writing at least one post that I’ve done some research on. I’ve got some questions I want to answer about vitamins and also about the dreaded high fructose corn syrup. I don’t think I’ll be able to research both of them this week, so if any of you have preferences, let me know. Have a good weekend.
J.D.
7 responses so far ↓
1 billy j. // Jul 25, 2008 at 11:18 am
high fructose corn syrup please. i am very against this stuff and do almost everything in my power to avoid it, but its extremely difficult. It has infiltrated the entire grocery store: bread, sports drinks, yogurt, etc. and i hate it! An informative post would be great.
2 Matty // Jul 25, 2008 at 11:35 am
Everyone has their own take on things, but I’d suggest to you that a better way to maintain calorie-burning throughout the day is via interval training - i.e. those fluctuations in heart rate you don’t like.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with circuit training, but you may find better success with a traditional weight-lifting routine and then a high intensity interval cardio routine on non-lifting days.
3 azphx1972 // Jul 25, 2008 at 11:46 am
Circuit training is a great way to get an efficient and effective workout. I’ve been doing it for 10 years and will share my workout routine shortly (I write slowly).
Nutrition is another topic that I could write a book about, if I had the time. My diet has slowly evolved over the years, and I’m still trying to figure out what works best for me. However, I have learned a lot of good stuff that I’d like to share. I feel pretty good that at 36 years old, I can still fit into my jeans that I wore in college some 14+ years ago, without having to suck my stomach in.
4 Kym // Jul 25, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I’d love to see an article about high fructose corn syrup! Keep the good work up!
5 Valerie // Jul 26, 2008 at 5:34 am
Count me in as another vote for HFCS
6 greenman2001 // Jul 26, 2008 at 7:13 am
Whatever else you conclude about high fructose corn syrup, Mac, I hope you’ll make clear that it can be easily avoided by simply not eating processed foods and cooking for oneself.
7 Megan // Jul 26, 2008 at 7:49 am
I’d love to see something on HFCS. I’m especially curious if the grams of sugar on the nutrition label from HFCS is worse than the grams of sugar from plain ol’ sugar.
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