Male Weight Loss Now

I pity the guys that still think that fitness needs to be hard work. The old locker room maxim, “no pain, no gain” has caused a lot of us to shy away from the exercise that our bodies need to be healthy. We are physical beings that require motion for us to operate properly.To lose weight, the male body must be utilized, but not punished.

Thanks to our military men and athletes, they have cultivated a strong sense of attention to taking care of our bodies. It is through the discipline we learn in sports, defense, and play that we already know how to condition our bodies. But for a vast majority of us, we do not exercise like we need to. Why?

We have equated exercise of fitness with pain. This is a gross misunderstanding of the “no pain, no gain” mentality. What we learned in gym class in school was to cultivate ourselves to achieve peak functioning to develop the most capable guys in class. Isn’t that the way a school needs to work? The curriculum is developed to challenge everyone to achieve. For the rest of us, though, that education was a bit “over the top.”

Training for sports and military takes this thinking to an even more intense level. Coaches know that in order to “harden” you for a game, match or combat, you need to be trained past the level at which you will see in the heat of the moment. This is where the “no pain, no gain” found firmer footing.

Before I go further, I want to remind you why exercise, and specifically strength training, is important to weight loss, just in case you may have forgotten. Given that your body has a lot of stored fat, you need to somehow expend this unwanted store of fat usually takes the form of belly fat and love handles for us men.

The good news is that you can use your body to burn its own fat. How? Metabolism is the technical term used to refer to the burning of energy in your body – fat, calories etc. One of the biggest determinants of how fast you burn fat is increased by a high percentage of lean body mass.

Lean body mass is basically the “you” minus all the fat. It is the weight of just your bones, muscle, organs, blood and fluids. The higher the percentage of lean body mass of your total body mass, the faster you will burn fat. Every time you exercise (and I mean every time), you build a little more lean body mass. The little additional body mass you build in exercise translates directly into more stored fat calories burned per hour.

I want to tell you right here and now, that to lose weight and get fit, there is no reason to be in pain in order to get fit. Let me tell you the reasons pain is actually an obstacle to losing weight:

1. You Won’t Show Up – think about it, if you know that something is going to be painful, how often will you really show up to do your daily activity? Whether it is running, lifting weights, climbing stairs, or floor exercises, most of us won’t even show up because of the pain. I don’t blame you. Who wants pain. The better path is to work in a routine that does not hurt and then actually do it.
2. Your Form Will Suck – now that you are doing your routine, first of all, congratulations on showing up! If for whatever reason you are doing a routine that requires a lot of pain, it is most likely that the form you utilize will be sub par. You will likely lift more weight than you should and then screw-up your face, writhe, decrease your range of motion, do far too few reps, and execute an overall poor isolation of the muscle group your are intending to work. I see it every day at the gym. Usually it is young guys that are trying to show off to other people what a man they are. The fact is that nobody in the gym really cares what anyone else is doing except themselves (and they are hoping you watch them).
   
3. Can’t Do This Forever - many young guys can take a lot of pain and still keep motoring through their workouts. You may even enjoy the idea that working heavily into your pain zone can create incredible results. For those guys who are getting amazing results, I am not writing this. I am talking to you. In order for a fitness program to help you lose weight, it needs to be sustainable through many years. You cannot beat yourself to death doing painful exercises for years. Stick with a reasonable path and I guarantee you will get results.

OK, so here is what to do.

Whatever fitness routine or exercise program you are doing is just fine. If you want suggestions on a routine, check out my fitness routine and see if you might be able to adapt it for yourself.

Do some kind of cardio exercise. Cardio does not necessarily burn stored fat, but rather uses up “todays calories.” However, most cardio exercises build tone, which is a good basic starting point to build further muscle mass. If you have ever swam, walked, run, climbed stairs for a few days you will notice a good general firmness in the legs (and arms if you swim).

Do some type of strength training. You need to work the major muscle groups…abdomen, chest, bicep, triceps, back and shoulders. If you do not like going to the gymn, you can get a fitness ball and some hand weights to build lean body mass. Start basic and do 15 minutes of training at first and keep the amount of weight you lift low.

Don’t let pain get in your way. Get your exercise. Get muscle. You will lose weight. It is only a matter of time.

I don’t know about you, but I was born lazy. I don’t like to work any more than I need to. That includes exercise. So if you think this article is about working out or exercising hard, you’re in the wrong place ! BUT, if you want to lose weight without working out hard, you need to read this article completely.

I think we need to be more like animals in nature. I like watching those nature programs. The BBC created a documentary called “Planet Earth” that I recently watched in its entirety.  I particularly appreciate those male lions lying out there on the Savannah. That is the way we need to be. This is purely natural for these powerful animals. It’s also natural for us.

In order to lose weight, exercise is necessary only as much, as your body naturally loses its own weight. If you look at ads for weight loss, you see a lot of glissening bodies of muscular male and female models working out.  I can tell you that I look great too, but I only spend 35 minutes in the gym 4 times per week.

Here are the scientific facts of how your body really loses weight on your behalf:

1. Resting Metabolism Rate - this is the number of calories your body burns per day while you are doing absolutely nothing…watching TV, sleeping,  arranging your little animals in Farmville. It is roughly approximated by the Harris-Benedict equation. This formula is the result of scientific studies and estimates your calorie burn rate (calories per day) based on age, gender, weight and height. If you are already eating less than this amount, you are already losing weight and  would most likely not even be reading this article. If not, read on…

2. Basal Metabolism Rate – Depending on your activity level, you can actually find out how many calories you will burn per day. This applies a factor to the calorie amount in Step #1 above based on your activity level. To lose weight, you need to eat less calories than this resulting number. This activity level elevates your metabolism both during activity and for a few hours after your activity. The problem is that for guys that need to lose a lot of weight, getting the cardio ramped up to a level where it really starts to burn significant calories is just not going to happen early on in the program. That is why the big burn comes from strength training.

3.Strength Training – This is the BIG BURN. When you build muscle mass, you are increasing the calorie burn all day long. You heard that right…..When you have increased your lean body mass with strength training,  you’re burning calories all day, not only while you exercise like aerobic activity. This is because when you do strength training, you are tearing down your muscles. When you tear muscles, the body repairs them with calories, nutrients and vitamins that you eat.  When muscles are torn, they repair WAY stronger than before. So your body is using up calories to build your muscles.

Here’s What To Do

From an interesting article on Strength Training and Weight Loss, it’s necessary to do about 30 minutes of strength training 2 to 3 times per week in order for your body to lose its own weight. Strength training for weight loss is the use of external resistance of exercise motion, against your normal muscular contraction to build muscle.

If you look at my strength training program, you’ll see that I utilize two separate workouts so that I don’t do the same workout, 2 days in a row. This is because muscles need some time to repair and I don’t want to work these muscles in two consecutive days.

1. Create a list of strength training exercises that you will do today. You need to work all the major muscle groups – chest, back, shoulder, triceps, biceps, abdomen, calfs, quadriceps, hamstrings. For today, choose only four of these – maybe work on chest, biceps, shoulders and quads.

2. Create a second list of strength training exercises that you will do tomorrow. Remember to include work on the abdomen muscles. Note that you cannot “spot remove” belly fat or love handles (or anywhere else either) by doing any type of strength training. Weight loss can only happen by reducing body fat evenly over the body.

3. Perform #1 and #2 alternatively throughout the week. At least two times per week. It is not necessary to do a total of more than 5 total workouts per week.

So, now you have 2 lists of exercises that you need to do to accomplish your weight loss goals. The best thing is to start right now. Notice, I didn’t say that you have to do these in a gym. For instance for chest, you can just do push-ups on your living room floor. So start now, with 15 push-ups.

Stay tuned. Due to the fact that strength training has such a profound impact on male weight loss, I will be writing in much more detail for your benefit.  Let me know what kinds of questions that you have by writing in the comments area. Thanks for stopping by.