The 'Biggest Loser''s competitive weight loss approach may be entertaining, but it is certainly not a healthy precedent for weight loss.

The Biggest Loser- A Bad Example For Weight Loss

Over the past several years weight loss themed reality shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’ have become increasingly popular but are such shows really helping promote weight loss and a healthy lifestyle? In the ‘Biggest Loser’ the objective is of course to have the contestants lose as much weight as possible and has made these goals very much a matter of entertaining the public rather than trying to show healthy and realistic methods for long term weight loss that anyone can apply.

Weight Loss Is Only Effective When Done Slowly

The benchmarks are ridiculously unrealistic and for that matter, dangerous. Much is made over the fastest 100 pound weight loss- some poor soul lost that much in seven weeks, whereas in my two decades of helping people lose weight long term it takes at least nine to twelve months to lose that much weight safely and keep it off. The most weight lost in a week on the show was 34 pounds, which while may make for compelling television viewing, sends a really bad message to the public in terms of weight loss as studies have shown that individuals who lose weight quickly run the risk of gallstones, mineral deficiencies, loss of muscle tissue and reduced bone density. The safe rate of one to two pounds of weight loss per week might help someone stay healthy and keep the weight off long term, but it would only get them kicked off the show for not losing weight fast enough.

Competitive Weight Loss Sends A Potentially Harmful Message To The Public

Many of my colleagues in both the personal training, nutrition and medical fields agree that the idea of competitive weight loss is a dangerous one that does little to educate the public on how to lose weight safely and effectively. In my own personal training practice I have always been steadfastly against the use of Before and After photos in my marketing campaigns as it sets the stage for highlighting unrealistic weight loss figures and takes away the importance of the individual focusing on achieving their own goals through lifestyle modification rather than trying to make the numbers on the scale go down.

The Dangers Of Too Much Too Soon

Needless to say there have been hospitalizations on the show- and numerous instances where contestants suffer cramps, exhaustion and stress fractures from the high workloads. This type of programming isn’t inspirational, its voyeuristic- watching someone who is significantly obese try to complete strenuous exercise activities and work out five to six hours a day while following remarkably restrictive diets. It also sets the stage for the idea that to lose weight you need to do extreme things like exercise every day for hours on end while starving yourself while studies are increasingly showing that you can actually make more progress following low volume high intensity training which calls for no more than a half hour of exercise a week.

The Biggest Loser Is An Unrealistic Portrayal Of Weight Loss In Real Life

But there is another side of ‘The Biggest Loser’ that most viewers don’t see. The screening process alone requires that potential contestants camp out for hours on end in line for a chance to audition for the show. Being able to spend eight hours in line for anything is more than most would attempt but it ensures that the contestants, while obese are far more determined than most members of the general population. They are further screened to make sure that there is a ‘Wow factor’ by choosing contestants that are truly obese. It wouldn’t be half as entertaining to watch someone that was 10 or twenty pounds overweight on the show and so they opt for most of the contestants to be severely obese.

Fast Weight Loss Is Seldom Long Lasting & Potentially Dangerous

Research has shown definitively that if you lose weight and then regain it you significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Many former Biggest Loser contestants have regained some or all of their weight and it isn’t surprising given the unrealistic amount of exercise and the severity of the diets. No one takes into consideration the fact that these individuals actually made their health problems worse by going through such an extreme weight loss process as entertainment, cleverly packaged to look like it is meant to be some form of public service is the end goal at all cost.

I have seen for myself more and more people feeling like they are failures since their weight loss isn’t as fast or as spectacular as the contestants on the ‘Biggest Loser’ and I have to constantly remind them that weight loss more of a marathon than a sprint and that their modest losses of one to two pounds a week is not only phenomenal but safe, healthy and more likely to be permanent. If you want information on weight loss, you don’t turn on the television in prime time and you have to keep in mind that entertainment is just that no matter how well packaged it is. At the end of the day slow and steady wins the race, without starvation diets and without spending hours every day exercising to exhaustion.

Kevin Richardson is the creator of the Naturally Intense High Intensity 10 Minute Workouts and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson weight loss diet, health tips, personal trainer nyc articles, training, weight loss

Slow down to lose weight!

Want A Simple Way To Lose Weight- Eat Slowly!

Over my many years of studies in both traditional Easter medicine and traditional Japanese martial arts, the idea of eating your food slowly has been a recurring theme for weight control and optimal health. I think everyone is familiar with how often children are admonished to chew their foods slowly, and now thanks to recent research we know that this age old health tip does indeed have merit.

In a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, seventeen healthy male adult volunteers were observed to see whether eating the same meal at different speeds would bring about  any differences in hormonal response. For the study, volunteers were given a serving of ice cream and made to eat the same amount at different speeds. Blood samples were taken to measure both insulin and gut hormones and what they found was that the volunteers released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes as opposed to five minutes. The two particular hormones released glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY are key components to signaling feelings of perceived satiety and fullness and thus leads to eating less.

Several Studies Confirm That Eating Slowly Decreases Caloric Intake & Risk Of Being Overweight

Several other studies back this claim, including a very large scale survey published in the British Medical Journal. For this survey 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women) ages ranging from 3 to 69 years old participated in reports on cardiovascular risk from 2003 to 2006. The results found that those who self reported consuming their foods quickly and eating until they were full had three times the likelihood of being overweight when compared with others that ate at slower paces. Another randomized study of 30 women published in the American Dietetic Association found that participants reported greater feelings of satisfaction and consumed less calories when they ate at a slower pace compared to when they ate quickly.

Our Fast Food Mentality May Be Doing Us More Harm Than We Know

The ancient wisdom of eating slowly and enjoying your foods can indeed help you eat less and thus should be considered a simple and effective method of weight control but it also raises some questions about common practices that might be contributing factors to our obesity epidemic. Given the ever increasing numbers of children that are overweight in the United States and the small alotment of time given to children for lunch breaks in public schools one cannot help but wonder just detrimental this practice is to the health of our children. For adults the idea of eating on the run and for that matter the whole idea of fast food and rapid eating may be more of a problem than we think. So eat slowly and enjoy your meals!

Related Articles:

Controlling Your Eating Habits

Best Way To Lose Weight- Eat A Healthy Breakfast!

NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a lifetime drug free bodybuilding champion and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. His high intensity 10 minute workouts have been helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here!

Kevin Richardson diet, weight loss diet, diet tips, eating tips, fast foods, fat loss, flat stomach, weight loss

Having A Low Body Fat Percentage Doesn't Mean You Are Healthy!

Nowadays the gold marker by which all health and fitness levels seem to be measured seems to be body fat percentages. Ask just about anyone that is seriously into their fitness regime what their body fat percentage is and nine out of ten times they can tell you exactly what it is. When I started out as a personal trainer, some 18 years ago, I kept calipers as part of my training kit and was very dedicated to measuring my clients on a regular basis. One day my coach came to me and asked me why I had the calipers and the clipboard and I answered that the training manuals said that it was key to measure body fat percentage as an indicator of progress. He laughed and gave me some of the best advice I ever got as a trainer and said that if a client can’t look in the mirror and see the differences themselves in their body, then I am not doing my job! He added that at the end of the day, a change in numbers means nothing when they still have a sizeable layer of fat obscuring their midsection. To this day I don’t use body fat testing as a tool in the Naturally intense System of Deit & Exercise, and in this post I wanted to explore the various ways of testing available on the market to toady as well as why in the end it is really how you look that matters, not just the numbers.  

Body Fat Measurements- BMI Examples

Body fat testing can serve a useful purpose to some degree in that it helps give some idea of how much body fat and how much muscle you are carrying at any given time, a reading that the scale or simple Body Mass Index estimates sometimes cannot give. I remember when I enlisted in the U.S. Navy and weighed in at a hefty 220 lbs at a height of 6 feet even.  I was told that I was significantly overweight and would have to lose at least 30 to 40 lbs before I could get in. My BMI was 29.8, which gave me a reading saying I was in the higher end of the overweight chart and almost at the point of being obese. I couldn’t tell you how funny that was as I had a body fat level of 6% at the time, with my abdominal muscles rippling and not an ounce of fat really visible on my frame and when the recruiter saw what I looked like under my clothes, he said not to worry about it, and that I would be fine. To this day at 225 lbs and at a body fat level of 5% or lower I am just about listed as being obese, which really highlights the limitations of the BMI scales. (To be fair- it is a noted fact that an athletically built human being’s measurement cannot be used to determine BMI using traditional methods.)

Body fat is a bit more reliable, but again, there are always limitations based on the method used to define it. There are many ways to measure your body fat, some being more accurate than others, but at the end of the day, it isn’t the number that matters, but the changes in the numbers as you keep on measuring using whatever method you choose.

The Simple Tape Measure Method

With tape measure and caliper testing, people who are muscular can get numbers 3 to 5 percent higher than their true percent body fat percentages. This is because they don’t have a lot of fat inside their muscles, so their measurements may be lower than this tape measure test indicates.

Conversely, if a person is skinny but doesn’t have much muscle, this body fat test may yield a number 3 to 5 percent lower than his or her true percent body fat. Though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can’t see from the outside. So, what’s the bottom line? For many people, this tape measure test is quite accurate, it puts you in control, it can be done frequently and it costs nothing.

Bioelectrical Impedance Testing

Bioelectrial impedance testing is a fairly common method and is being used more and more in scales that you can have at home. The way it works is that a small electrical charge is sent through the body. The greater the resistance (measured in ohms), the more fat is present, because fat interferes does not conduct electricity as well as muscle does. The lesser the resistance, the more muscle tissue is present, because lean tissue is highly conductive due to its high water content. It can be off by quite a wide margin, as to be accurate hydration levels have to be exactly the same each time as well as the amount of food in your stomach and intestines. The test also tends to overestimate percent body fat in very lean individuals, (sound familiar?)  and underestimate body fat in obese people.

Additionally the handheld devices only measure fat levels in the upper body- sending a current through one arm and out the other arm, while and digital scales only measure fat levels in the lower body- current goes up one leg and down the other). Both types models won’t take abdominal fat storage into account, so you’re not getting a full picture of the fat level of your entire body at any time.

Skin Fold Caliper Testing

With the skin fold testing, calipers are used to pinch certain parts of the body and then determine the body fat percentage based on the assumption that the amount of fat stored at these various sites is proportional to a person’s overall body fat, thus by measuring several sites, total body fat may be calculated. It is a pretty reliable test, if the same person performs it each time (it is a skill and there can be wide ranges in reading from different people performing them, as it does take some practice to master.) However there are limits. Some people just don’t pinch easily- and it is hard to get reading from them. Others have such high body fat levels that the calipers cannot open wide enough to pinch accurately and the tests will thus underestimate their levels.

The Golden Standard- Hydrostatic Testing

This can be a pretty involved  (and expensive) process, bordering on the extreme for most. Hydrostatic testing for years has been the golden standard, where you are completely immersed in water and then asked to blow as much air as possible out of your lungs. Not exactly a great way to spend and afternoon, but it does give a very precise reading, but is far more involved for most people (myself included) and while more accurate than the caliper tests or simple measurement estimations based on taking measurements from various parts of the body, it still has some degree of error, especially when it comes to athletes- who tend to have higher bone densities than the rest of the population and thus can read to have a higher fat percentage than is actually true. Differences in bone densities based on race also can throw readings off to a degree as well.

There are other methods that are being used more and more, from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (Cat Scans), Near Infrared Interactance and Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry. All seeking to find more and more accurate ways to measure body fat. Most are way too expensive and time consuming for most as part of a regular regime to record someone’s progress outside of a clinical setting.

What Is A Healthy Body Fat Percentage

Personally, I shy away from the whole idea, as with the Naturally Intense System of Diet and Exercise, a healthy body fat percentage is attained when you can look in the mirror and see very little evidence of fat on your body- end of story. The numbers and the charting means very little to most of us if we don’t look great with our clothes off. That being said, there are some standards that you should know to start off with, in terms of what is healthy and what is unhealthy.

 The American Council on Exercise and says men’s body fat should be 6-25%, and women’s should be 14-31% while the American Dietetic Association recommends that men have 15-18% body fat and women have 20-25% body fat.

Healthy male athletes might be as low as 5-12% body fat, and healthy female athletes could be as low as 10-20%.

Body Fat Is Not The Only Indicator Of How Good You Will Look Or Good Health

One of the reasons that I stress that the mirror is more important than any reading you may have, no matter how accurate the method used, is that where you hold your body fat is more important than what your percentage is. For example, my experience has been that two people can have exactly the same body fat percentages and look as different as night and day. Some people can have rippling abs with 15% body fat whereas others have to go as low as 6% to start seeing real definition in their stomach areas.

More importantly the risk of fat related conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers is determined by where you hold your body fat. Fat around the abdominal area holds the greatest risk for potential health problems, while fat around the hips and thighs for women seem to be relatively harmless with respect to these health problems.

Although two people can have the weight or the same body fat percentage, that doesn’t mean they face the same health risks. Where body fat is located can place a person at far greater risk for fat-related health conditions such as: cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and even certain types of cancers.

It is important, for health and well-being, to not only know your body fat percentage but to also pay attention to where that fat is located. Fat around the abdomen may present the greatest risk for health problems. In contrast, fat around the hips and thighs is most common in females and seems relatively harmless with respect to these health problems. So don’t get too hung up on the numbers.

NOTE: If you liked my blog post and are able to forward it to a friend, or give me a Stumble thumbs up or review, Digg it and add it to a few other social networking sites or link it to your blog, I would very much appreciate it!  Thanks for reading!

Learn more about the science behind the 10 minunte workouts of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise here and visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. You can also get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson health tips, weight loss body fat, body fat percentage, body fat testing

Will Bread Make You Fat?

Common question: Will bread make you fat? One that I get asked over and over, and of course no one food can make you fat, but there are certain foods that can contibute easily to and increase in your weight and that seem to correspond to an overall decrease in performance and possibly have a detrimental overall effect on your health. This two part piece will explore the issue and I will detail my theories on wheat products in general. I hope you find it to be of use. 

One of the first things that my personal training clients get is a dietary guide with a caveat of sorts, warning them to stay away from certain foods. Highlighted on that list are all wheat and bread products. It is a commonly accepted fact that consumption of bread and wheat products is an absolute no-no for anyone trying to get into and maintain really optimum condition, and so it doesn’t come to many as a surprise. It seems pretty cut and dry, bread and wheat products equals getting fat and holding excess water, but I have to be honest with you and say that it isn’t that simple.
You see the foundation of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise has always been a return to the foods that we as a species have been consuming for thousands of years over the modern post industrial revolution foods that dominate our food supply today. Before the push for more and more quick and easily stored mass produced foods to support the ever growing numbers during the huge manufacturing and population boom of the late 18th century, there were no epidemic level mortality rates from Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact all of the ills that we take for granted as just another sign of aging are really simply a byproduct of eating modern food products. Products that either contain ingredients that are foreign to the human body, or made in a way that disrupts the natural biochemical ratios of the micro and macronutrients in our foods. A disruption that ultimately wreaks havoc with the way that our body has been designed and adapted to over the course of our hundred thousand plus years of existence.
Bread, then falls into a bit of a questionable category, as it has been around for almost as long as civilization has existed, providing a convenient source of both carbohydrates, micronutrients, fats and some protein to millions over the centuries without any ill effects. It is still eaten daily by many in cultures where modern processing has not yet found a foothold, and those populations seem untouched by the idea that it is somehow bad for your health.  True bread does not grow on trees, nor is it a non processed food in the purest sense of the word, but just like rice, the human body learned to adapt to it over the course of the thousands of years that it was consumed. This process, called micro-evolution is one that occurs over a long period and one glaring problem with modern foods is that they simply are too new to our body to learn how to adapt to it. Perhaps over the course of several thousand years we will be able to consume high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils with no problem whatsoever, but I for one don’t want to see what humans would look like at that time.

The problem with modern bread is twofold- number one- it is not made in the manner that traditional bread was made, (and don’t be fooled into thinking that the so called organic breads on the market are any better, because 99% of them are not) and the ingredients that it contains. In PART 2 I will detail exactly why bread today is not what we think it is, and why even the organic brands are suspect. Keep on reading!

Lose weight, build real muscle and get Superfit training only 10 minutes 3 times a week! That’s the slogan and the 100% guarantee of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ created by visionary NYC personal trainer, internationally renowned natural bodybuilder and fitness expert, Kevin Richardson. Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson health tips, weight loss bread, carbohydrates, diet, diet tips, eating tips, weight loss

Alma- Great views and great food

 

Cuisine of the week: Mexican Food

One of the first misconceptions about staying in great shape is that you have to sacrifice any semblance of a normal family or social life. That simply isn’t the case and with this restaurant series review I would like to help people realize two things: firstly that food is not the enemy and secondly, that there are almost always great choices that you can make while dining out. I maintain a bodyfat level of 5% at  or less at a weight of just about 220 lbs all year round, but not from killing myself following a restrictive diet, or from any genetic gift that allows me to eat whatever I want (I had my time doing that and I blew up to 252 lbs just like everyone else!). The way I do it is by training the way I train, (using the brief high intensity workouts of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise- which by the way also allow me to have a life outside of the gym since I am only training for about an hour or less a week in total) and by eating in a manner that my body actually wants to eat. To me being healthy has to combine the physical, mental and social aspects and anything less is just a temporary fix.  So read on for some great tips on eating out in this week’s review:

 My mother-in-law’s boss, was coming into town from France, so my better half and I decided to use the opportunity to meet up with him and his girlfriend for dinner. He was passionate about eating as the French say, ‘en plein air’- in the open, and so we did a search for a good New York restaurant that had great views and great food. The choice was Alma, located in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. (187 Columbia Street-corner of Columbia & Degraw Streets). It looked like a great choice and so, my fourteen year old and 4 month old in tow, we set out to meet them there. From the outside it may not look like much, but after a steep stair climb three flights up you are greeted with a magnificent view of downtown Manhattan.

Alma is a Mexican restaurant, and the food was second to none. After greeting our guests, the menus came and there were many selections for those of the health conscious ilk. I chose to skip the appetizer, (cardinal rule- smaller meals throughout the day, so for dinner I will usually forgo an appetizer and stick with a main course- for lunch, if I am going to be active later in the day or workout, I certainly go for it.) That evening I had a the Steak Fajitas- an Angus skirt steak fresh from the grill and served with an avocado sauce and fresh corn tortillas. I asked for the sauce on the side, as it was late in the day, but I had no problem with the fresh corn tortillas. As a rule I avoid commercial wheat products, but traditionally made corn tortillas are very much on my menu. Beef, by the way, is not a dietary no-no if you are active enough and eat in moderation. A steak won’t  make you fat either, and you can almost always fine a selection of steak on any menu and as long as it is not burdened with high sodium sauces, it is always a great choice!

My West Indian nature always calls for my steaks to be well done (there is no medium or rare option in the islands) and I can say that the selection was delicious. The steak was done just right and the corn tortillas were truly right out of the oven. Stephanie, who is just as Naturally Intense as I am, had the steak as well, but from the looks of it the Mahi Mahi, with the rice cake on the side would have been excellent as well. There were many other great choices on the menu:

Pollo Asada- a grilled chicken breast with chipotle mayonnaise, guacamole, lettuce and roasted tomatoes, served on a freshly baked roll. Ask for the mayo on the side and depending on how strict you want to be, you can skip the roll and voila- a perfectly diet friendly meal!
Ensalada Verde- A green salad with your choice of grilled shrimp or chicken- a wonderful choice. It comes with vinaigrette- which you can always pass on to keep your sodium levels on the lower side and ask for some lemon to squeeze over your salad.

There are many other choices and I invite everyone to check out the menus on their website- the rules according to my way of eating would be to simply skip the cheese and bread additions, have the sauces on the side- so if you do have them you only have a little bit and presto- you can eat out, have a great time and without any guilt! The evening was really one well spent, with great service and they were kind enough to accommodate our little one. It was also great to spend an evening speaking French as well, and I always welcome the opportunity. I hope this review and diet column helps you in your eating out choices as well.  See you next week for our next review!

Overview: Alma
Food Type: Mexican
Price: Not too pricey, and the value is worth it.
Rating: I give the food 4 and stars out of 5 and the décor and ambiance 4 stars.
Health Rating: Ask for the sauces on the side, mind the rolls and the cheese and you have enough selections to have a healthy and hearty meal! 3 stars and Naturally Intense Approved!

——————————————————————————————————-

Mexican Food Rules For Staying In Shape:

1.  Ask for sauces on the side, freshly made salsa is okay in moderation if it isn’t too salty, as is guacamole. Guacamole is a bit high calorie, but not a problem if you don’t overindulge
2. Pass on the cheeses. ‘Nuff said!
3. Choose grilled foods over fried ones. Chicken, fish, shrimp, and even beef and pork are fine as long as it isn’t fried.  Keep in mind that  ’Crispy’, is code for fried!
4. Have the corn tortillas- it has a higher fiber content than wheat products.
5. Keep in mind the time of the day- feel free to have an appetizer if it is in the middle of the day, but load up more on salads and vegetables if it is later in the day or on days when you will be inactive.
6. Have water as your drink- you’ll save money and your waistline.
7. Always leave feeling like you could still eat a little more.  Never leave a restaurant feeling stuffed!
8. Enjoy yourself!

NOTE: If you liked my blog post and are able to forward it to a friend, or give me a Stumble thumbs up or review, Digg it and add it to a few other social networking sites or link it to your blog, I would very much appreciate it!  Thanks for reading!

Lose weight, build real muscle and get Superfit training only 10 minutes 3 times a week! That’s the slogan and the 100% guarantee of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ created by visionary NYC personal trainer, internationally renowned natural bodybuilder and fitness expert, Kevin Richardson. Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson Healthy Restaurant Reviews, weight loss eating out, healthy restaurants, mexican food