By Benjamin Petitpas, CSCS, CPT

How can I lose fat from my stomach and thighs?

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as spot reduction. I can’t just tell you to go do 1,000 crunches to lose your belly fat. Your muscles in that specific area would get stronger, but in the big picture the crunches won’t help you lose the fat surrounding your midsection.

What happens is that your body stores the excess calories that you consume through your diet as body fat to be used as a source of energy at a later time. If you are constantly consuming more calories than you are burning on a daily basis, your body will continue to store more and more calories as fat instead of using the fat as energy. Read the rest of this entry

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By Dr. Judy Siegel

A reduced calorie diet for weight loss-Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?  Of course a DIET to lose weight has fewer calories!  Fewer that what?  Fewer than whatever you’ve been eating and few calories than you burn in a day.  Now we have a problem-how many calories do you burn in a day?  I don’t know and probably neither do you.  So, how can you decide how many calories to eat on your reduced calorie diet? 

Calorie is a measure of energy, the amount need to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water 1 degree Celcius, from 14.5 to 15.5 C.  It really is a kilo-calorie (kcal)-1000 calories.  So whenever you read “calorie”, think kcal.  All foods contain energy (kcals) and we use this energy from food to run our bodies, run to the store, run after kids, or just run-or walk.  All movement requires that we spend calories to get it done.  Most of the calories we burn are used for keeping the system going:  the heart pumping, brain thinking, kidneys and liver working, etc.  Below is a diagram of how your body spends calories. Read the rest of this entry

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Ingredients:

1 lb. beef  tenderloin, cut into chunks

Box of mushrooms (pre-sliced if you wish)

1 large onion chopped pretty fine

16 oz. low fat sour cream

Salt and pepper

.33 cup white wine

Directions:   Read the rest of this entry

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Ingredients: 

2 cups fresh pineapple

2 apples, chopped to bite sized (Granny Smith?)

1 stalk celery sliced to bites

1/3 cup low fat mayonnaise

1/3 cup low fat lemon yogurt

2 T. honey

¼ cup chopped walnuts

.25 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions: Read the rest of this entry

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Ingredients:

6 oz. flounder or sole per person

1 tsp. low fat mayonnaise

1 tsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 cup fresh spinach

Directions: Read the rest of this entry

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Ingredients:

6 oz. shrimp per person

1 cup chopped tomato

1 chopped pepper—yellow or green

1 small onion chopped

Garlic clove

Celery stalk, chopped

Cooking Directions: Read the rest of this entry

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Michael Phelps diet consisted of eating 12,000 calories a day while he was training for the Olympic Games this past summer. He said he was still having a hard time keeping weight on because of all of the calories he burned during his workouts.

Check out this video below it is hilarious!

This is what would happen if the majority of us tried the Michael Phelps 12,000 calorie a day diet!

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“I am doing the same workouts that has helped me lose 10 pounds initially, but I have not been able to lose any more weight.  How come I have stopped seeing results?”

This is a common question that I hear all of the time. This is something that can happen after a few months on the same program and doing the same thing every time you go to the gym.

One thing about the human body is that it has an amazing ability to adapt to whatever stresses that you put on it.

Initially, you may have seen some great results when you started your exercise program, because the exercises program was new.  Your body was not use to the new program and was under more stress that what its use was to.

In order to get stronger you must overload the muscles and give them more work that what they are use to. As a result the muscles will grow and become stronger as a way of adapting to the stimulus.

What happens in many cases is that most people begin an exercise program and initially they get instant result, but after a few months on the same program using the same amount of weight, sets, reps, time, or intensity levels the body adapts and you will hit a plateau and stop seeing results.

In order to get over this plateau you must change some of the variables. Here are a few changes to help you get over the hump so you can start getting results again quickly.

·         Change the exercises

·         Change the order of exercises

·         Change the weight

·         Change the sets

·         Change the reps

·         Change the rest time

·         Change the tempo

·         Change your program- circuit training, split routines, total body

This does not mean that you should switch your workout up every time that you come to the gym. No, the key is to give your muscles a chance to adapt before you switch up your program. Usually I will switch up the workouts every four weeks. This gives your muscles enough time to adapt and grow stronger from the new workout, but not enough time to for your muscles to hit a plateau.

By Benjamin Petitpas, CSCS

Personal Trainer Connecticut

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It seems as though most people feel like they need to spend an hour or two at the gym 7 days a week in order to get any real results. Well this simply is not true. The real problem is that people don’t know how to use their time efficiently in the gym.

This is the biggest problem I see at the gym. People walk around aimlessly doing a one set of an exercise and then spending the next 5 minutes resting or talking with friends before they do another set. No wonder why you can see the same people at the gym every day, but you never notice any changing in their bodies.

I am going to share a few of my training secrets with you so you can use manage your time more efficiently. This way you can spend less time in the gym and more of your time doing the things that you enjoy. The best part is that you will burn more fat, lose more weight, and get some serious results in less time.

Read the rest of this entry

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