60 years of trials: Most common dieting outcome is weight regain or trivial loss

From this article, Oprah’s Investment in Weight Watchers Was Smart Because the Program Doesn’t Work, a quote:

“My lab reviewed 60 years of clinical trials of diets, and we found that people lose an average of 10 percent of their starting weight on most diets but within two to five years have gained back all but about two pounds.  So, in reality, despite the short-term effectiveness of certain diet regimes, themost common outcome of dieting itself, by a landslide, is either weight regain or trivial weight loss".

A diet is not a permanent fix. Three life style changes that are sustainable:

1. Make modest permanent changes in eating habits. For me that was no alcohol, no soda, and minimal grains and sweets.
2. Strength train for the highest marginal return – don’t waste time exercising. A full body HIT workout once a week to deep fatigue with no rest between exercises takes about 25 minutes.  A stronger body will have a higher metabolism and more energy. Mitochondria, found in most cells, is where respiration and energy production takes place. Six months of strength training partially reverses mitochondria impairments to a level consistent with a younger stage in life. It is like having a fountain of youth.
3. Do an activity you enjoy. Because of one and two you’ll be able to do activities longer with less chance of injury and more enjoyment.

Your life will profoundly change, and it does not required hours in the gym.   At Austin Strength Trainers and New Orleans Strength Trainers we have a program you can finally stick to.

Exercise shown to increase fat burning hormone Irisin

“High Intensity Training (HIT) enacts a hormonal cascade that is the antithesis of the metabolic syndrome.” - From the web site, Body By Science. 

Part of that cascade is Irisin, a hormone associated with fat burning that correlates positively with muscle mass. From this article, Exercise releases hormone that helps shed, prevent fat:

"Irisin has a positive effect by turning white fat into brown fat and that it increases the body's fat-burning ability." 

And from this article, Effects of Obesity, Diabetes and Exercise on Fndc5 Gene Expression and Irisin Release in Human Skeletal Muscle and Adipose Tissue: “Irisin was positively linked to muscle mass, strength and metabolism.”

While losing fat is primarily an eating-less proposition you can help it along by increasing irisin production. To produce more irisin it helps to do exercises that will increase strength and muscle. The high intensity training (HIT) we do at New Orleans Strength Trainers and at Austin Strength Trainers will do that.

Americans heavier than 20 years ago

According to this AOL article Americans weigh 15 more pounds than they did 20 years ago - AOL as the title says:

“According to a new federal report U.S. men and women weigh about 15 pounds more than they did 20 years ago!”

The number is for average adults, but the average adult has changed over the years. The average age of Americans has gone from 30 years of age in 1980 to 37.7 years of age in 2014, and 37 year olds tend to weigh more than 30 year olds.   

How much of that 15 pound gain is fat and how much is muscle? It may be that they actually lost muscle and gained even more fat.  The number might be accurate, but it’s not specific.

Here is a number that is specific: adults lose on average 5 pounds of muscle as decade as they age.  Less muscle means a lower metabolism leading to increased likelihood of fat gain.

At Austin Personal Trainers and New Orleans Fitness Training we can help you reverse that trend.  One of our clients, 65 years old, attends a fat lose clinic.  Her latest reading at the clinic indicated that in addition to losing fatshe was gaining muscle.

How many more calories are burned standing instead of sitting? Not much

Researchers measured the caloric expenditure of four groups doing four different activities: typing while sitting, watching TV while sitting, standing, and walking. In 15 minutes it turns out that standing burns 2 more calories than sitting. From this article How Many Calories We Burn When We Sit, Stand or Walk, some quotes: “Someone who stood up while working instead of sitting would burn about 8 or 9 extra calories per hour. (Just for comparison, a single cup of coffee with cream and sugar contains around 50 calories.)” And: “When the volunteers walked for 15 minutes, even at a fairly easy pace, they burned about three times as many calories as when they sat or stood. If they walked for an hour, the researchers calculated, they would incinerate about 130 more calories than if they stayed in their chairs or stood up at their desks.” You’ve got options for creating a caloric deficit. You could stand at work for most of the day and earn cream and sugar in your coffee, or you could sit at work and drink your coffee black. An Oreo is 45 calories. You could walk an hour at work (good luck with that) and eat three Oreos or the equivalent, or pass on the sweets and sit. There is another option. Do a form of exercise that burns more calories while you are doing it, long after you finished doing it, and will raise your resting metabolism so that you are burning more calories even when you are sitting at work drinking your coffee with cream and sugar. While the best way to lose fat is eating less, exercise can help. High Intensity Training (HIT) burns calories four ways. One study examining the effect of high intensity strength training on metabolism showed a nine-fold improvement in fat burning. This is the type of training we do at Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Personal Training.

The results of a study on the effectiveness of targeting fat loss

A woman did a quarter million leg raises in a year, and there was no change, not a scintilla.  There was no spot reduction of fat deposits from her amply marbled hips. Well, that is just one person, and a sample size of one has no statistical power.  Maybe a larger sample size and more accuracy (MRI assessments) would produce a result of statistically significant spot reduction of fat from the area targeted with exercise.

Maybe not, from this article, Targeted Fat Loss: Myth or Reality?, this quote from a study:

“Tennis players constitute a population whose right and left arms have been consistently subjected to very different amounts of exercise over several years. Consequently, if spot reduction were a valid concept, one would expect the players’ dominant arms to have thinner layers of subcutaneous fat compared to their non-dominant arms. When the researchers measured the thickness of subcutaneous fat at specific points along the players’ arms, however, they found no statistically significant difference between right and left arms.”

Fat burned as fuel during exercise or even resting can come from anywhere in your body, not just the part that is being worked the most.  You don’t have a say, your genetics do. It is best to choose a form of exercise that burns the most calories and will continue to burn calories long after the exercise session is completed.

Another quote:

“High-intensity interval training (alternating between brief periods of high-intensity and low-intensity exercise) can be particularly effective, due to the phenomenon of after-burn – that is, an increase in resting metabolic rate that occurs for up to 24 hours post-exercise. “

That after-burn is excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption, (EPOC), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) results in more EPOC than any other form of exercise. HIIT is the type training we do at Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Personal Training. 

Losing weight and keeping it off - what you are up against

This New York Times article, The Fat Trap, explores how people lose weight, but almost without exception, gain it right back.

In one study, 50 obese men and women consumed just 500 to 550 calories a day for eight weeks and lost an average of 30 pounds. A year after the study, subjects had regained an average of 11  pounds and reported feelingfar more hungry and preoccupied with food than before they lost the weight. Yeah, I know the diet was too restrictive, but regardless, it is interesting to note what is going on hormonally. A quote from the article:

“A full year after significant weight loss, these men and women remained in what could be described as a biologically altered state. Their still-plump bodies were acting as if they were starving and were working overtime to regain the pounds they lost. For instance, a gastric hormone called ghrelin, often dubbed the “hunger hormone,” was about 20 percent higher than at the start of the study. Another hormone associated with suppressing hunger, peptide YY, was also abnormally low. Levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses hunger and increases metabolism, also remained lower than expected. A cocktail of other hormones associated with hunger and metabolism all remained significantly changed compared to pre-dieting levels. It was almost as if weight loss had put their bodies into a unique metabolic state, a sort of post-dieting syndrome that set them apart from people who hadn’t tried to lose weight in the first place.”

And this:

“How long this state lasts isn’t known, but preliminary research at Columbia suggests that for as many as six years after weight loss, the body continues to defend the old, higher weight by burning off far fewer calories than would be expected.”

Who wants to lose significant weight only to feel pangs of hunger more often than not and have a lower metabolism? That is kind of bleak, but there is a solution. To offset that undesirable metabolic adaptation begin strength training, preferably high intensity straining training.

High intensity training (HIT) for strength will burn more calories than other forms of strength training.HIT effectively burns calories four ways. HIT produces higher sustained excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) than any other form of exercise. Muscle is metabolically expensive. HIT will make you stronger, and a stronger body will burn more calories even at rest.

At Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Fitness Training we offer high intensity training (HIT)that has been show effective for weight loss. All you have to do is stick with it and make modest changes in eating habits. You will lose fat and more likely keep it off.

Three different diets, equal in calories, three vastly different results

This New York Times article, What Really Makes Us Fat, discusses the result of a study that produced surprising results.

The experiment: Three separate groups on three different diets stuck to a diet for a month. All subjects consumed the same amount of calories.

Diet 1: A high-carbohydrate low-fat diet - fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean sources of protein.

Diet 2: A low glycemic index diet - fewer carbohydrates in total - non-starchy vegetables, beans, and minimally processed sources.

Diet 3: The Atkins diet - high in fat and protein and very low in carbohydrates.

Results: The fewer carbohydrates consumed, the more energy was expended.

A quote from the article:

“On the very low-carbohydrate diet, subjects expended 300 more calories a day than they did on the low-fat diet and 150 calories more than on the low-glycemic-index diet.”

And another:

“The fewer carbohydrates consumed, the more energy these weight-reduced people expended. On the very low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, there was virtually no metabolic adaptation to the weight loss. These subjects expended, on average, only 100 fewer calories a day than they did at their full weights.“

When there a restriction of calories consumed the body makes a metabolic adaption by burning less calories, even more so when the diet is high in carbohydrates. Strength training can offset that metabolic adaptation. High intensity training (HIT) for strength will burn more calories than other forms of strength training. HIT effectively burns calories four ways. HIT produces higher sustained excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) than any other form of exercise. Muscle is metabolically expensive. HIT will make you stronger, and a stronger body will burn more calories even at rest. 

At Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Fitness Training we offer high intensity training (HIT) that has been show effective for weight loss. All you have to do is stick with it and make modest changes in eating habits.  You will lose fat and more likely keep it off.

Caloric restriction and longevity

A New York Times article, The Calorie-Restriction Experiment, details a study where researchers attempted to find out if eating less increased longevity. 132 men and women reduced their daily calories by 25 percent for two years to see if a Spartan diet affects the aging process and its associated diseases. 

Subjects experienced “astounding drops in cardiovascular risk factors”.

BUT, another quote:

“Ninety-nine percent can’t do it,” John Holloszy, a medical doctor who is the lead investigator at Washington University, told me. “The people in the study are not going to stick with it” after they leave.

Damn.  Two years to figure that out?

The study was about factors effecting longevity, but what I found interesting was that subjects lost about 15 % of their body weight and reached a plateau at a “weight stability” level. It is important to note that subjects were of normal weight to slightly-overweight to start. They did not have much to lose. I am guessing that weight loss was not all fat tissue. If you attempt to lose weight by calorie restriction your body will catabolize lean body mass to lower the body’s metabolism to compensate for the decreased caloric intake. Who wants a "weight stablity" level where you have to go through life under-muscled and hungry?

A more reasonable approach might be to cut back eating just a bit and exercise a bit more. A different study found that more muscle was positively associated with longevity. If you add proper strength training to the mix your body will make a positive adaption to withstand the stresses placed on it by the strength training. The body does so by maintaining or even adding muscle mass and thereby increasing metabolism.

At Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Fitness Training we offer high intensity training (HIT) that has been show effective for weight loss. All you have to do is stick with it and make modest changes in eating habits.  You will lose fat and more likely keep it off.

Lactic acid soreness – “one of the classic mistakes in the history of science"

A quote from this NYT article, Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel:

“’The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago’ … It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense.

‘It's one of the classic mistakes in the history of science.’ ”

The article goes on to say that the idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness never made sense, because lactic acid is gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise,  The soreness stays.

With strength training certain things are observable:

• 1. Muscle soreness after strength training can last for days.
• 2. Given enough time after strength training muscles adapt by becoming stronger.
• 3. The time needed for recovery varies from person to person.

Since we don’t know the precise amount of time needed to recover from strength training why not error on the side of more rest rather than less rest? The advantages:

• 1. Less likely that exercise sessions will become drudgery.
• 2. Less chance of a repetitive-use injury.
• 3. You are more likely to stick to it.
• 4. Less likely to have a compromised immune system from overtraining.
• 5. You will be more likely to receive the full benefit of your efforts.

Regarding number five, when there is insufficient time between workouts you will ruin two workouts - you will not be fully recovered from your first workout, and you will not be up to speed for the second one. You will not improve, and you will have wasted valuable time and effort. To get thehighest marginal return on exercise it is essential to have adequaterecovery time,and lactic acid does not come into the mix. You might find thatless frequent exercise can have a profoundly positive effect.

It is often difficult to get a handle on recovery and how often to train.  At Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainers we can help you with that. 

The right kind of exercise to lose weight

A NYT article concluded that To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More:

Reasons for that mentioned in the article:

1. Exercise stimulates the appetite.
2. Exercise over time makes us more efficient.  A more efficient body burns less calories.
3. Exercise burns precious few calories.

You can eat three less Oreos or run an extra mile to have the same calorie deficit.  You can exercise strenuously for 30 minutes or drink two less 16 ounce cokes. That is an easy call for me.

The article states:

“When you lose weight, metabolism often slows. Many people believe that exercise can counter or even reverse that trend. Research, however, shows that the resting metabolic rate in all dieters slows significantly, regardless of whether they exercise. This is why weight loss, which might seem easy when you start, becomes harder over time.”

I think that depends on the type of exercise. For more on the right type of exercise go here.  The right kind of exercise can counter a diet-induced slowed metabolism. A stronger body will have a higher resting metabolism, and proper strength training will burn calories four ways.  When you restrict calories the body, as an act of self-preservation, will lower its metabolism by consuming lean body mass.  Strength training sends the opposite message -–you need to maintain that lean body mass to survive the demands placed on it.  

A stronger body will burn more calories even at rest. At New Orleans Fitness Trainers and at Austin Personal Training we can show you how to workout effectively and efficiently, get stronger, and even burn a few calories. 

Is exercising to lose weight a losing proposition?

Sorry about the pun. According to Wikipedia: A human being traveling on a bicycle at 16–24 km/h (10–15 mph), using only the power required to walk, is the most energy-efficient means of human transport generally available.  Just how energy efficient is the bicycle?

The LiveStrong web site has an article, Calories Burned Biking One Miledetailing how many calories one burns riding a bike. Looking at the numbers from that source and others sources as well, you can get a rough estimate of number of calories burned riding a bike. Depending how much you weigh and how fast you ride you are going to expend anywhere from @ 30 to 60 calories per mile riding a bike. For ease of computation let’s use an average of 45 calories per mile of bike riding.

Add two other factoids:  There are 31,500 food calories in a gallon of gas, and there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat.

A human would have burn off nine pounds of fat to equal to the calories in a gallon of gas, and burning calories at 45 calories per mile, could travel 700 miles. Biking is very efficient miles-per-calorie-wise biking, and exercise in general, do not burn that many calories.  You’d better of concentrating on eating less to lose that fat.

This NYT article, To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More discusses the subject in more detail.

High Intensity Strength training on the other hand effectively burns calories four ways  High intensity strength training is the type of personal training we do at Austin Fitness Training and at New Orleans Personal Training.

One study says exercise targets visceral fat

Belly fat is visceral deep fat, while subcutaneous fat settles just beneath your skin.  Visceral fat potentially increases the risk for many diseases; it produces biochemical signals that promote inflammation in the body. 

According to a NYT article, Ask Well: Reducing Belly Fat  sit-ups are useless for losing belly fat, and you would be better off taking a walk. That I knew.  What didn’t know was that exercise might actually target visceral fat more than subcutaneous fat.

One study showed that exercise disproportionately targets visceral fat,and a meta study concluded:

“A comprehensive 2013 review concluded that programs combining aerobic exercise and occasional sessions of weight training were superior to either type of exercise alone at reducing belly fat.”

At Austin Personal Trainer and New Orleans Personal Trainer we can get rid of the visceral fat with just the plan out-lined above.

Losing belly fat by strength training

From this article The best exercise for controlling belly fat, this quote: 

"Men who did regular weight-training had less gain in their waistline (-0.67 cm) over the 12-year period, compared with those who participated in moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise (-0.33 cm), or physical labor from daily life such as yard work or stair climbing (-0.16 cm)."

Losing muscle is part of the aging process. As adults we lose about 5 pounds of muscle a decade, and with that comes a lower metabolism. If you don’t cut back on the calories you will replace that muscle with fat.
If you attempt to lose weight with a severe caloric restriction your body received the message that it's not receiving enough calories to survive. The body will catabolize lean body mass to lower the body’s metabolism to compensate for the decreased caloric intake.
If you diet and also strength training the body, instead of losing muscle mass, you will maintain and even add to the muscle mass and thereby increase metabolism. 

At Austin Personal Trainers and New Orleans Fitness Training we offer high intensity training (HIT) that has been show effective for weight loss.  All you have do is stick with it, make modest changes in eating habits, and you will get to where you need to be. 

Sensible Weight Loss

There is confusion of about just how many calories are burned as a result of exercise and also about how much added muscle increases metabolism. The short answer is not much. Fat loss is primarily accomplished by eating less - not diet per se but by following a sensible eating plan you can stick tofor the long haul, in other words for the rest of your life. Diets, as a rule, seldom work in the long run.

The type for training we do, High Intensity Interval Training, produces the most Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), and as such you will burn more calories than other forms of exercises. Also high intensity interval training has been shown to lower one’s appetite.

One study examining the effect of high intensity strength training on metabolism showed a nine-fold improvement in fat burning. Why more than other forms of exercise? Because HIIT burns calories four ways .

The best way by far to lose weight is to follow an eating plan you can stick to and couple that with weight training. With caloric restriction (dieting) the body receives a message that it is not getting enough calories to sustain itself. The body responds by catabolizing lean body tissue which is metabolically expensive to maintain. The result is a lower resting metabolism. When you strength train the body receives the opposite message. The muscles will make a positive adaptation to the demands placed on the muscles. The muscles become bigger and stronger and will require more calories not less.

One of our clients lost 50 pounds slowly, very slowing. When you lose weight slowly the body has time to adapt to the new homo stasis, a new set point. When you lose weight quickly the body is desperately trying to get back to its original set point. That is why weight is re-gained so quickly.

At Austin Personal Trainers and New Orleans Fitness Training we offer high intensity training (HIT). It is a full body workout. It takes about 30 minutes, and you do it once or twice a week. This is a workout that you slowly build up to, but it is doable at 30 minutes once or twice a week. All you have to do is to keep improving, make modest changes in eating habits, and you will get to where you need to be. The other days of the week you are free to engage in activities you enjoy; there are not hours of drudgery in the gym. This is a workout plan most people can stick to for the long haul

High intensity activity affects fat loss

From this study, Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity and Weight Outcomes: Does Every Minute Count? comes this quote:

"What we learned is that for preventing weight gain, the intensity of the activity matters more than duration," says Jessie X. Fan, professor of family and consumer studies at the U. "This new understanding is important because fewer than 5 percent of American adults today achieve the recommended level of physical activity in a week according to the current physical activity guidelines. Knowing that even short bouts of 'brisk' activity can add up to a positive effect is an encouraging message for promoting better health."

The recommended number of minutes of exercise a week is 150 minutes. Fewer than five percent of American adults today achieve the recommended level of physical activity in a week. The recommended program might be a great program, but if next to nobody does it what good is it? People exercising with greater intensity for far less than the recommended 150 weekly minutes have achieved really amazing results.

At Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainers we can help you gradually build up to a high intensity regime that is safe, effective, and efficient for your age. Our oldest client is 88. Using such a program you can expect to feel better and have a dramatic improvement in your health.

How Much Of Difference Can Three Minutes Of Exercise A Week Make?

How much difference can three minutes of exercise a week make? it turns out quite a lot. How can that be? From this article, Can three minutes of exercise a week help make you fit?, comes this quote:

"part of the explanation is (probably) that HIT uses far more of our muscle tissue than classic aerobic exercise.

When you do HIT, you are using not just the leg muscles, but also the upper body including arms and shoulders, so that 80% of the body's muscle cells are activated, compared to 20-40% for walking or moderate intensity jogging or cycling.

Active exercise also seems to be needed to break down the body's stores of glucose, deposited in your muscles as a substance called glycogen. Smash up these glycogen stores and you create room for more glucose to be sucked out of the blood and stored."

HIT stands for high intensity training. HIT can be done on most types aerobic equipment. HIT for strength produces similar results. HIT strength training is a series of high intensity weight lifting exercises with short rests in between. Done correctly both, HIT strength training and HIT using aerobic equipment, will get one's heart rate up near the maximum for one's age.

We can show you how to both at Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Trainers. Both are safe, effective, and efficient. Using such a program you can expect to feel better and have a dramatic improvement in you health.

High-intensity intermittent exercise effectively burns fat

From the Journal of Obesity from this study, High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss comes this quote:

“The effect of regular aerobic exercise on body fat is negligible; however, other forms of exercise may have a greater impact on body composition. For example, emerging research examining high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) indicates that it may be more effective at reducing subcutaneous and abdominal body fat than other types of exercise.”

And this quote:

“Regular HIIE produces significant increases in aerobic and anaerobic fitness and brings about significant skeletal muscle adaptations that are oxidative and glycolytic in nature. HIIE appears to have a dramatic acute and chronic effect on insulin sensitivity.”

The study goes on to say that the results are promising but more studies are needed. They study states that aerobic exercise has little effect on body fat, and that the potential for fat loss high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) is promising. There is a long list know benefits (see recent posts) plus potential benefits. That is good enough to start incorporating HIIE into a training training regimen.

High-intensity intermittent exercise is brief, intense exercise training with short rests in between the intense bouts of exercise. This can be accomplished on aerobic equipment or by doing a series of strength training exercises. We can show you how to both at New Orleans Fitness Trainersand at Austin Personal Training Both are safe, effective, and efficient. You won't need to spend hours in the gym.

High intensity interval training produces metabolic adaptations in far less time compared to traditional methods

In a two week study ( Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance) researchers compared changes produced by sprint-inteval training (SIT) versus high volume endurance training (ET). Total training time 2.5 hours for SIT and 10.5 hours for ET, and total training volume was 90% lower for SIT versus ET

From the study: Brief, intense exercise training may induce metabolic and performance adaptations comparable to traditional endurance training....Given the large difference in training volume, these data demonstrate that SIT is a time-efficient strategy to induce rapid adaptations in skeletal muscle and exercise performance that are comparable to ET in young active men.

Brief, intense exercise training can be accomplished on aerobic equipment or by doing a series of strength training exercises. We can show you how to both at New Orleans Fitness Trainers and at Austin Personal Training Both are safe, effective, and efficient. You don't need to spend hours in the gym.

High Intensity Interval Training Lowers Blood Sugar

[Lief, one of our clients' has gone from five insulin shots a day down to one. He has been training with us for about four years. His video testimonial is on this page.]

Short, intense bursts of activity to mini workouts seemed better able to metabolize sugars – from this article Brief Brief, intense exercise lowers blood sugar:

"Small, new study found that 30 minutes of high-intensity exercise a week -- a total exercise time of 75 minutes a week with warm-up and cool-down included -- could lower blood sugar levels for 24 hours after exercise, and help prevent post-meal blood sugar spikes in people with type 2 diabetes.

"If people are pressed for time -- and a lot of people say they don't have enough time to exercise -- our study shows that they can get away with a lower volume of exercise that includes short, intense bursts of activity," said the study's senior author, Martin Gibala."

This interval training can be done on most aerobic equipment. Interval training can also be incorporating into strength training - perform a series of high intensity strength training exercises will little rest between the exercises.

This form high intensity interval strength training produces more Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) than any other form of exercise. This is the type of personal training we do at New Orleans Fitness Trainers and at Austin Personal Training.

Exercise and weight loss, how much?

From this article this quote: Exercise: The News You Don't Want to Hear

“A much better and more efficient way to exercise -- and one that research is clearly showing works a lot better -- is to do high-intensity circuit training. Put the beauty bells down and lift some iron. Shorten your rest periods. If you're doing "aerobics," do some interval training where you sprint for a while then jog to catch your breath.

And by the way, forget about "toning." It doesn't exist. You're either building muscle, maintaining the muscle you already have, or your muscles are slowly shrinking. The first two are accomplished with weight that's heavy to lift. The third is accomplished by doing nothing.

Please understand: No one believes in exercise more than I do. But trying to lose weight with exercise alone -- particularly the long, slow, arduous and generally not-fun method of running mindlessly on a treadmill -- is a doomed strategy if your goal is to lose body fat“

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the type of training we do at New Orleans Personal Trainers at Austin Fitness Trainers.