Working out – Where to begin? Part One

Many people tend to get confused when they attempt to enact and participate in a new exercise regiment.

Their main difficulties lay in what to do. They are eager to start but have no clue where to begin, how to begin, or what to do in order to most positively affect their fitness goals.

Many folks are in this exact situation as we head closer to the New Year with preparations for New Year’s resolutions fast approaching.

So where does one begin?

Well, the 1st, most basic, and most important step is to take stock of where you are and where you are headed. Sounds simple, but you must gain your bearings before you set out on any long trip, right? No difference here.

[Get the Beginner's Resource Guide here for more help]

Get a proper medical physical with blood work done to assess your overall health. I don’t care if you just gave birth, ran a marathon a year ago, or if you got a physical last year and “passed” with flying colors. Get one done.

After your physical has been completed and you have been cleared for physical activity, find out what your current weight is, what your overall body fat percentage is, and get tape measurements of your upper body, waist, lower body, and if you are so inclined your arms (biceps/triceps). The reason why for all of the above, you want to be able to track body-morphic changes above and beyond just your weight.

At this point, you should have a fair idea of what your goals should look like. If in 6 months, for example, you want to lose 30 lbs for an upcoming wedding, then you know you want to lose 5lbs per month for the next 6 months. This is a highly attainable goal in that you have given yourself a safe enough time frame by which to lose this weight and enough time to properly gauge, analyze, and properly augment your approach to attaining this goal.

A safe estimate of weight loss per week should be no more than 1 lb per week on the conservative end, and no more than 2lbs per week on the aggressive side. Establish your goals far enough in advance of a specific event or date of importance to allow for proper analysis and change in approach. Once you have established a time specific and safe goal, it is time to outline how you are going to attain said goal.

It is vitally important that you eat and hydrate yourself, especially post workout, as your recovery time and the efficiency of your recovery is affected by what and when you eat NOT IF YOU EAT. If you do not eat, thinking that you will save yourself some calories, you are in fact sabotaging your efforts and slowing your metabolism.

Track what you eat for at least three entire days. In addition, keep track of what time you go to sleep and wake up. You want to determine how many hours you sleep vs how many hours you are awake. This will help determine how many times per day you should be eating and how far apart your meals should be spread.

Next, determine if you are working, how often you will be allowed to eat while at work. What time is your lunch? Are you allowed a 10 minute period to take a break in which you will have a snack?

When all of the above is determined, you will then begin working on your meal intake/nutrition plan for Workout Days, and for Non Workout Days. Yes, you will have two somewhat distinct approaches to nutrition based on Workout Days and Non Workout Days. Simply put, in terms of quantity, you will be eating less on Non Workout Days. This does not mean you don’t eat at all – you just will not be eating as much as you would on days that you Workout.

The old nutrition foundation of three square meals has been challenged recently in favor of a modified three squares which includes a snack or two in between. In reality, there is not standard template regarding nutrition that any person should follow. The foundation should instead be a focus on the types of foods that you are able to eat. What I mean is, there are many folks that are allergic or intolerant to certain foods, thus a pre-set formulaic food template would be of no benefit to folks who would not be able to eat 50% of the items on a nutrition menu.

Yes, you should opt to eat fresh foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and proteins and fats which have been derived from fresh means.

We all have a specific number of calories that our body is able to burn while we are at rest. This is known as Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). This figured is calculated using a number of factors including Height, Weight, Age, and Activity level. Essentially, in order to lose weight, you need to have a certain number of calories that you burn versus what you take in via nutrition. If you burn more calories, say at the end of the week than you take in from the foods you eat, that is known as a calorie deficit.

In order to lose a pound of weight, you would need a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories, preferably over the course of a week or two – over the course of a week this would amount to about 700 or so calories per day for 5 days.

In our above example of losing 30lbs in 6 months, that would amount to a net deficit of 105,000 calories over about 180 days. Stated otherwise, this would require a deficit of about 580 calories per day to get to that eventual goal. For a woman weighing 170lbs  who takes in about 2,000 calories per day, this would require a metabolic rate of about 2,600. Usually, the body’s weight and activity takes care of a good amount of the metabolic requirements in order to reach our goal. The rest is taken care of through exercise. So if the intake and the RMR evens out, all you have to do is workout and expend between 450-600 calories per workout to meet your deficit quota. The subsequent recovery period will effectively spike your metabolic rate. Based on how consistently you workout and how well you recover, your metabolic rate will far exceed your intake and you should be able to hit your goal within the parameters you have set for yourself.

 

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