Question:

I am professional dancer and I have recently change my eating and exercising habits and dropped 20 lbs. I do 40 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning 5 days a week and I do the ab wheel every night and some push ups pull ups and dips 3x a week. I still have a little bit of fat around my lower abdominal area. I know diet is 80% of the battle and I eat fruits and vegetables everyday along with lean protein and a little bit of carbs. Are there any little tricks I can do to lose the last little bit of fat? Otherwise I am quite happy with my body… Thanks Doug!

Congrats on your weight loss and getting a body you’re happy with. And props for addressing the major issues like exercise and nutrition and for realizing their importance before worrying yourself with the smaller details.

Here is what I noticed you’re doing right:

• Nutrition–eating lean protein, fruits, and vegetables every day-keeping carbs to a minimum.
• Exercise
  • Frequency- This is how many times per week you exercise. I haven’t stressed this very much on this blog, but frequency is crucial. You’ve built a lifestyle that incorporates exercise so you can get your work in 5+ days a week–way to go!
  • Strength Training- You’re doing 3 days/week of some sort of strength work with your dips, pushups, and pull-ups.
  • Cardio- You’re also incorporating cardio 5 days per week (though I recommend interval training).
  • Core-Training-Keep it up with the pushups and ab wheel exercises.
• Mindset–You realize the importance of nutrition and consistent exercise, are not looking for shortcuts, and you’re obviously willing to put in the necessary work.

That being said, there is one thing I noticed from what you told me about your program that jumped out at me.

Where’s the lower body strength training?!!!!!

Ya know, for your ass and legs—You missed a few BIG muscles here.

Remember, you want to build muscle so that your body burns fat more efficiently. And believe me-if you’re not yet incorporating resistance training with your lower body, you still have a lot of room to grow.

I know you’re doing cardio (and a lot of it), but you’d be better off replacing 20 minutes of cardio with some squat, deadlift, and lunge variations on your three strength training days. This will allow you to keep the ball rolling with your results.

This will ensure that every part of your body will be constantly in a state of building new muscle and burning Calories, (which is what you want in order to lose that last bit of fat.)

So go do some squats and let me know how it goes!!!

Technorati Tags: ab roller, abs, calories, cardio, Core Training, fat loss, lower-body-training, meal frequency, Nutrition, Program Design, strength training, weight loss

I’ve heard that lifting weights helps you burn more calories if you lift weights before cardio and would like some insight on this.

Answer:

This is a good question, and there is not really a definite answer either way–it depends on your preference.

But, I will give you an answer anyway.

It doesn’t make sense that doing one before the other will burn more Calories, assuming you’re doing the same amount of work.

However, this doesn’t mean that your order doesn’t matter..

It’s true that you’ll see the greatest improvement in the activities you perform first in the session and the least in the activities you perform last.

Now judging by your question, it sounds like your primary goal is fat loss. Your other goals are likely to increase your strength and improve your cardiovascular fitness.

So..

Pick which one is more important to you (getting a stronger body or a stronger heart) and perform that one first.

Yes, that’s the answer–not really rocket science, huh?

It just makes sense that the first activity you perform will be when you’re fresh and will be able to give 100%–thus you’ll see the most improvements.

If you wanted to take this principle a little bit further…

You can break it down to individual strength exercises–putting the area you want to improve most first or toward the beginning of the program.

Also, if you’re doing a split routine, put the body parts you want to improve most at the beginning of your training week. So if you wanted to improve leg strength, do legs on Monday rather than Friday.

If you REALLY can’t decide which is more important to you, aerobic capacity or strength, don’t be afraid to experiment.

Try doing your cardio first one day–then switch it around on the next day. See which one you LIKE better.

Simple huh?

You never know–you may like both and decide to switch it up regularly to keep your program from getting boring. Aren’t options great?

Ultimately, the most important thing if you’re relatively new to exercise is trying to pick an order you can enjoy and will keep you coming back to the gym–but if you’re looking for an objective reason for picking one order over another, just do the one you want to improve the most first.

I hope this helps!

And be sure to check out the audio below.

Technorati Tags: calories, cardio, exercise order, Performance, Program Design, strength training

I have a BMR of 2279.6 how many calories should i burn to lose 2lbs a week if i have a 2000 calorie diet. 720 a day?

Answer:

First of all, TEE, or total energy expenditure would be a better indicator since this represents how many calories you’re burning throughout the day, rather than only at rest.

Your TEE is found using a formula that uses your RMR (rather than BMR) and your daily activity level (ie sedentary, somewhat active, very active, etc). It also uses gender, height, and age, and body weight.

But, for calculations sake, let’s assume you’re going to burn 2280 Calories per day on average to determine how many Calories we need to burn to lose two pounds a week on a 2000 Calorie diet.

First of all, 1lb of body weight = 3500 Calories and 2lb of body weight = 7,000 Calories

So, what you’re going to need to do is create a 7,000 Calorie deficit per week, meaning that your body has to burn 7,000 more Calories than it will need.

2280 X 7 = 15960 kcals/week [this is what your body needs to maintain weight]

2,000 X 7 = 14,000 kcal/week [this is the number of Calories you plan on eating per week]

15,960-14000 = 1,960 [This is your Calorie deficit with no additional exercise]

So, with a 2,000 Calorie diet, we’re at -1,960 per week

In order to burn 2 lbs a week, we need to be at a 7,000 Calorie deficit.

so….

Now we just take 7,000-1,960 = 5,040kcal/week

divide this by 7 days and you get 720.

Yep, you were right

Technorati Tags: BMR, calorie-counting, calories, RMR, TEE