SilentMale
Really Really Experienced
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- May 21, 2006
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How to Get Off Your Fat and Get the Fat Off!
By Paul Chek, HHP, NMT
Founder, C.H.E.K Institute
Looking and feeling the way you've always wanted to is not nearly as tough as you may think it is. I regularly remind my patients and students that it doesn't take any more effort to live a life of health and vitality, than it does to earn a life of disease, dysfunction, depression and fatigue. In this series, I will tackle conventional wisdom with regard to how best to lose fat.
The Art of Balancing Calorie Consumption and Calorie Expenditure
There are many fads and fallacies regarding fat loss. The bottom line is this:
You will not lose fat if you dramatically cut calories. The only way you will lose body fat (and keep it off) is by burning calories through a combination of these two actions:
1. Eating high-quality, whole foods in the correct proportions to your metabolic type
2. Regular exercise
With the exception of those on serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs (most antidepressants) and others that disrupt metabolism, it really is that simple.
To do this, you will have two hurdles to jump:
1. Deprogram your mind of all the garbage information and hype from the media. This means being much more selective about believing what you hear from so-called health and nutrition experts on TV commercials, radio, magazine ads, books and even peer review journal articles.
Most of what you are being told by common media streams, industry scientists and many university professors consists of twisted or partial truths presented as scientific research, which is funded by food manufacturers, drug companies, product manufacturers and other big industry interests. If you take a closer look, you'll notice most of the "experts" are overweight, obese, out of shape, pre-diabetic or diabetic and rarely ever practice what they preach.
2. Doing the work: Yes, you will have to look in the mirror and make a commitment to change. That may entail either doing more exercise than you've been doing, performing different exercises than you've been doing, or possibly even doing less if you've been over-doing it.
Counting Calories is a Dangerous Game
Today, you can see people running the streets, pounding away at their stepper or rowing away with little calorie-counting devices stuck to their arms and ankles, or nicely tucked away inside their exercise machines. Some make progress and then plateau, while others don't make any progress at all and stay frustratingly fat, in spite of displaying the discipline of a Marine core drill instructor.
Sadly, most people don't realize that eating an apple and two boiled eggs for breakfast (because their little gadget says they deserve 250 calories for the workout they just completed) is a sure-fire way to keep the diet industry booming.
Resting Metabolic Rate
First of all, what is generally overlooked by most people, yet highly important if you really want to change your body shape and be healthy in the process, is that just being alive costs you as much as 70 percent of your daily caloric expenditure. That's right, just living accounts for as much as 70 percent of the calories you burn every day.
The Cost of Digestion and Elimination
The next commonly overlooked caloric reality is that it costs between 5-15 percent of your daily caloric expenditure to simply digest and eliminate what you eat. Many people naively assume that as soon as they eat or drink something, it just jumps inside their cells and starts cleaning, organizing, energizing and eliminating similar to a well-trained handyman. This is simply not the case, as the process of digestion can use as many as 15 percent of your daily caloric expenditure.
The No Diet + Exercise= Fat
Are you faithfully working out several times a week, yet can’t seem to change your body shape? If you answered “Yes,” chances are very good that it’s because you are dieting. No, that’s not a misprint. I did say, “Because you are dieting.” Allow me to explain.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had young women, mothers, adolescents with and without parents tagging along, men going through a mid-life crisis, world class athletes and even competitive bodybuilders suffering a rebound fat accumulation. Interestingly enough, they were all suffering fat gain in spite of the fact that they were all exercising regularly and eating what they thought was a “good diet.”
Paul Chek is an internationally respected speaker and consultant in corrective and holistic exercise kinesiology and was the first person to introduce Swiss balls to a professional sports team in the United States (the Chicago Bulls in 1991) and abroad (the Canberra Raiders Rugby League team in Australia in 1995), as well as a host of other professional organizations. For information on Chek's Swiss ball of choice -- the DuraBall Pro -- his courses, videos, books and seminars, or the C.H.E.K Institute, call 800/552-8789 or 760/477-2620 (international) for your free catalog or visit the Web site at www.chekinstitute.com.
By Paul Chek, HHP, NMT
Founder, C.H.E.K Institute
Looking and feeling the way you've always wanted to is not nearly as tough as you may think it is. I regularly remind my patients and students that it doesn't take any more effort to live a life of health and vitality, than it does to earn a life of disease, dysfunction, depression and fatigue. In this series, I will tackle conventional wisdom with regard to how best to lose fat.
The Art of Balancing Calorie Consumption and Calorie Expenditure
There are many fads and fallacies regarding fat loss. The bottom line is this:
You will not lose fat if you dramatically cut calories. The only way you will lose body fat (and keep it off) is by burning calories through a combination of these two actions:
1. Eating high-quality, whole foods in the correct proportions to your metabolic type
2. Regular exercise
With the exception of those on serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs (most antidepressants) and others that disrupt metabolism, it really is that simple.
To do this, you will have two hurdles to jump:
1. Deprogram your mind of all the garbage information and hype from the media. This means being much more selective about believing what you hear from so-called health and nutrition experts on TV commercials, radio, magazine ads, books and even peer review journal articles.
Most of what you are being told by common media streams, industry scientists and many university professors consists of twisted or partial truths presented as scientific research, which is funded by food manufacturers, drug companies, product manufacturers and other big industry interests. If you take a closer look, you'll notice most of the "experts" are overweight, obese, out of shape, pre-diabetic or diabetic and rarely ever practice what they preach.
2. Doing the work: Yes, you will have to look in the mirror and make a commitment to change. That may entail either doing more exercise than you've been doing, performing different exercises than you've been doing, or possibly even doing less if you've been over-doing it.
Counting Calories is a Dangerous Game
Today, you can see people running the streets, pounding away at their stepper or rowing away with little calorie-counting devices stuck to their arms and ankles, or nicely tucked away inside their exercise machines. Some make progress and then plateau, while others don't make any progress at all and stay frustratingly fat, in spite of displaying the discipline of a Marine core drill instructor.
Sadly, most people don't realize that eating an apple and two boiled eggs for breakfast (because their little gadget says they deserve 250 calories for the workout they just completed) is a sure-fire way to keep the diet industry booming.
Resting Metabolic Rate
First of all, what is generally overlooked by most people, yet highly important if you really want to change your body shape and be healthy in the process, is that just being alive costs you as much as 70 percent of your daily caloric expenditure. That's right, just living accounts for as much as 70 percent of the calories you burn every day.
The Cost of Digestion and Elimination
The next commonly overlooked caloric reality is that it costs between 5-15 percent of your daily caloric expenditure to simply digest and eliminate what you eat. Many people naively assume that as soon as they eat or drink something, it just jumps inside their cells and starts cleaning, organizing, energizing and eliminating similar to a well-trained handyman. This is simply not the case, as the process of digestion can use as many as 15 percent of your daily caloric expenditure.
The No Diet + Exercise= Fat
Are you faithfully working out several times a week, yet can’t seem to change your body shape? If you answered “Yes,” chances are very good that it’s because you are dieting. No, that’s not a misprint. I did say, “Because you are dieting.” Allow me to explain.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had young women, mothers, adolescents with and without parents tagging along, men going through a mid-life crisis, world class athletes and even competitive bodybuilders suffering a rebound fat accumulation. Interestingly enough, they were all suffering fat gain in spite of the fact that they were all exercising regularly and eating what they thought was a “good diet.”
Paul Chek is an internationally respected speaker and consultant in corrective and holistic exercise kinesiology and was the first person to introduce Swiss balls to a professional sports team in the United States (the Chicago Bulls in 1991) and abroad (the Canberra Raiders Rugby League team in Australia in 1995), as well as a host of other professional organizations. For information on Chek's Swiss ball of choice -- the DuraBall Pro -- his courses, videos, books and seminars, or the C.H.E.K Institute, call 800/552-8789 or 760/477-2620 (international) for your free catalog or visit the Web site at www.chekinstitute.com.
