S.M.A.R.T. Resolutions 2010

Losing weight is a perennial All-Star when it comes to New Year's Resolutions. We see it in the gym every year as the wait time for equipment and the sign-up lists for classes get longer.

Then, for some reason, after Cupid makes his rounds in February, the gym seems back to normal. What happened?

Well, statistically, about 80% of people who make New Year's resolutions have quit by the sixth week of the year. Here's how not to become a statistic:

Develop S.M.A.R.T. goals when it comes to your health and fitness. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. While SMART is a cute acronym, I'll break it down in order of importance:

Relevant: Your goal should be appropriate for your needs, desires, and current fitness level. This means that your goal should be important and significant to your overall life. Here's an example; if you can not pick up anything weighing over 10 pounds without worrying about your back going out on you, then losing 5 pounds is an irrelevant goal. Improving your core strength and spinal stability is more relevant at this point.

Often times, we choose irrelevant fitness goals because we are swayed by the tide of popular culture. We see the models on the covers of magazines and think that being a certain size or weight is important (which very well may be the case for you).

Determining the relevance of your goal requires some soul-searching. The principle of relevance guides how you define the other four goal parameters, so think carefully about this and consult a fitness professional if you need help.

Attainable: Your goal should be something that is reasonable and within reach. While you may enjoy distance running, don't make it your goal to qualify for the 2012 Olympics if you are not already competing at an elite level. Start off with a small, attainable goal, like improving your 5K time. For weight loss or body-fat loss, consider losing 5 pounds or 1-2% body-fat. Once you reach that goal, it's time to set a new one.

What is Attainable is directly related to how much change or sacrifice you are willing to make, which is related to how Relevant your goal is. You won't lose the 5 pounds if you are not willing to give up the desserts every night. Maybe your goal should be to only have dessert twice a week instead.

Specific: This ties-in to the Attainable principle. Don't just say that you want to lose weight. Quantify it. And make sure it's a realistic number. When it comes to weight loss, half a pound to a pound and a half per week is considered safe, effective, and maintainable. For body-fat changes, 1% per month is average if your mix of diet and exercise is right.

Measurable: Make sure that you can accurately and correctly measure your goal. "To look like Britney Spears" is not a measurable goal (also it may not be Relevant or Attainable). Once you pick a measurable goal, be sure to measure correctly. Keep the conditions at the time of measurement the same each time. Have someone else (e.g. your trainer) do the measurements with you.

And make sure not to measure too often. It is not necessary to stand on the scale every day. That is equivalent to trying to improve your marathon time by running a marathon every day. Focus on the process and the little things that you must do each day to reach your goal. Only weigh yourself weekly at the most (if that is your goal).

Time-bound: Set a realistic time frame for completion of your goal, and stick to it. One of the biggest problem with New Year's resolutions is that the time frame is too long. Either your goal is to far away for you to reach it, or it's so far off that procrastination can easily set in. It's OK to keep the long-term goal and write it down, but also set short-term goals that can be attained in 1-3 months. If you've already accomplished a short-term goal by February, you'll be more likely to keep the ball rolling into the Spring.

So take some time to evaluate your goals using the S.M.A.R.T. system, and you will be successful. Write your goal down, share it with friends or family, and make yourself accountable. And at this time next year, you'll have a new goal to work on, instead of the same thing as last year.

If you have any questions about your S.M.A.R.T. goals, feel free to contact me, or consult your fitness professional. For those of you that are FD/T Personal Training clients, we will be doing assessments (including body-fat%, girth measurements, strength and endurance testing, and the Functional Movement Screen) during the first two weeks of the year.

In Health,

-Okinyi

Lose Five Pounds in One Week!!!

So someone asked me today if they can lose five pounds in one week. This individual was very fit, works out regularly, has run several marathons, but has gained some body fat in undesirable areas over the past couple of months. So my first question was, "Why do you want to lose five pounds?" then, "Why do you want to lose five pounds in a week?" These questions can lead to some complicated issues surrounding weight loss/management, which drives many of us to the gym.



1. First off, let's be clear. You can lose five pounds in a week, but it won't be the kind of weight that you want to lose. A pound of fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories. So five pounds would be 17,500 calories. In my high-intensity circuit group workout this morning, one of my male clients burned approximately 950 calories in one hour. That would mean that he would need to do about 19 of those workouts in a week to lose five pounds of fat (given that his caloric intake stays the same). The bottom line is that it takes time to lose fat. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week is safe and effective. Anything faster than that is most likely loss of water weight (which can easily be regained) or loss of muscle mass (which slows your metabolism, making it easier to regain fat and harder to take it off). Don't set yourself up for failure! And don't succumb to society's penchant for instant gratification.


2. Get rid of your scale! (Or at least don't get on it so often.) If you were trying to improve the time that it takes you to run a mile, and you ran a mile for time every day, you probably would not see that much of a difference. In fact, you'll probably run slower than your fastest time most of the time. If you weigh yourself everyday, you are focusing on the outcome instead of the long-term behavior modifications that need to happen to see a noticeable difference. Besides, your scale weight can fluctuate based on water intake, sodium intake, the "time of the month", and a host of other factors; but that does not mean that you gained or lost weight. If you are an avid scale watcher, you may even modify your food intake based on what the scale says (for example, skipping breakfast because the scale says that you are a pound heavier than yesterday). This can be dangerous because you start to tinker with your metabolism in a negative way.


Only weigh yourself once a week, if that. Weigh yourself at the same time, under the same conditions each time. And be aware that your scale weight only tells a small piece of the story of the changes that occur in your body composition when you combine exercise and nutritional modifications. To create long-term changes and effectively manage weight loss, one must maintain or increase lean muscle mass. About 70% of your daily metabolism comes from muscle. But this poses a problem to your scale because muscle is heavy. So this means that you can decrease your body fat %, decrease your risk for many diseases, be stronger, be smaller, look leaner, increase your metabolism, and actually weigh more than you do now!



3. Why did you gain the five pounds in the first place? Many times weight gain is due to lifestyle changes. It can be stress, a change in job or commute, getting married, having children, a new restaurant opening, menopause, etc. If any of these things affect your weekly activity level and/or caloric intake negatively, you will gain weight. If you just start exercising without mitigating the external factors that caused the weight gain, then do not expect to lose weight. (But that does not mean that you shouldn't exercise if you cannot change your external circumstances; there are many other reasons to exercise.)


This step may be the hardest for many people. But realizing where the lifestyle change occurred may help in developing strategies to combat it or work around it.


4. Drink more and eat more (often). I am not a nutritionist. But I tell all my clients that the two biggest changes that they can make in their nutrition is to drink more water and eat more frequently (making sure to start with a good breakfast). Doing those two things will correct many other nutrition problems. For example, if you are drinking more water and staying hydrated, you won't drink as much soda, juice, Gatorade, coffee, tea, and other sources of empty liquid calories; thus you will effectively decrease your caloric intake. If you have eaten a snack between lunch and dinner, then you will be less likely to make bad food choices for dinner, overeat, and want dessert afterward. In addition, by the time you feel like you are hungry, your body has already gone into a catabolic state, which means that your lean muscle mass (which you worked so hard in the gym to gain) will be broken down to be used as energy. And remember, less muscle = slower metabolism.

So don't get thirsty and don't get hungry (by eating healthy foods every 2-3 hours).

5. Stay away from cardio (as you know it). Cardiovascular exercise has long been a staple of weight loss programs. Any trainer would say that you must do cardio to burn calories, and many (myself included) have prescribed 30-60 minutes of aerobic activity 3-5 times per week. But what if I told you that you could get better results in terms of improved VO2 max (more endurance), improved anaerobic power, and more fat loss in just 4 minutes of cardio 5 times per week? We'll talk about interval training in the next post. . . .