Lose Weight | Gain Muscle| Nutrition Facts

You notice that you are having trouble getting into your favorite jeans.  What you see in the mirror after you get out of the shower is not appealing.  With a deep breath and a sigh, you step on to the bathroom scale to weigh yourself.  Uh-Oh!  10 lbs. over-weight!  How did that happen?  Well, you probably have the answer to that question as we usually know what we are doing wrong as we are doing it – even though all those Italian dinners and the chocolate cream pies were oh soooo delicious!  Anyway, back to reality.

Now, how can we get serious about taking this excess weight off as quickly and as safely as possible.  Well, if you are like a lot of folks, you might think that cutting drastically down on your calories and jogging like hell every day will do the trick.  Wrong!  In this post, I will show you how just jogging excessively, every day, can have an effect of diminishing returns, that is, if you jog too much – you could actually get chubbier!  But how?  Let me explain.

The 3 Reasons How Just-Jogging Excessively Can Make You Fatter

1. Jogging Excessively Can Waste Your Muscle Tissue Away –  When you lose muscle tissue, this is not good news.  The more lean muscle that your frame carries, the more efficiently your body will burn or metabolize fat.  In the first 20 minutes of jogging, you body is using up its stores of glycogen or blood sugar for energy.  After 30 minutes (and especially if you jog over an hour) your body is beginning to dig into your muscle tissue for fuel.

2. Jogging Excessively Can Slow You Metabolism Down – When you lose muscle tissue, you lower your metabolic fat-burning rate, thus your body gradually begins to go in the other direction; it begins to go in the direction of storing fat.

3. Jogging Excessively Can Create You Into  A “Skinny Fat Person” – This is a phenomenon that is very common with fanatical joggers.  The person who is excessively jogging to the point of wasting away needed muscle tissue begins to store fat in “unflattering” places all around their body.  With their clothes on, a “skinny fat person” might look fine, but the minute that he or she takes their clothes off, you can see ugly rolls of fat around waist line or jiggly fat layers around the butt, particularly in the case of women.

The Solution: If You Jog – What Must You Also Do – Lift Weights!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I am all for jogging and vigorous aerobic activity for maximum physical fitness, but I am a strong advocate (almost to the point of an evangelic zeal) that whatever your stage or age – you must incorporate progressive weight resistance exercising, using barbells and dumbbells, as the core of your fitness routine.

Muscle, as previously stated, is a metabolically efficient tissue, that is, it can easily burn fat, even while you are at rest and for hours after you have finished working out.  Since your body will need that muscle as you continue to progress with your bodybuilding routine, using muscle tissue for fuel is the last thing that body will do.  Your body will go first for the fat tissue to burn as fuel – through the practice of weight training and sensible jogging (of about 20 to 30 minutes on alternate days to your weight training), you will achieve the best of both worlds – a body that is aerobically efficient and one that is a lean, mean muscular machine.

Please leave your comments,

Yours in health,

Charles Prosper

“The 12-Week Fitness Guru”

I think that most people understand how beneficial running or bicycling is to the health of the heart and the body as a whole, but did you know that they have several important mental health benefits that can improve your brain efficiency as well?  In this article, I will show you the 4 amazing mental health benefits of that you can start enjoying today with jogging or bicycling.

The 4 Mental Health Benefits of Jogging or Bicycling

Benefit Number 1 –Enhances Mental Clarity – Are you the creative type stuck in a rut?  Well,  put that computer keyboard away.  Put on your running shoes, and go out for a 30-minute run.  You will be surprised at the freshness of new ideas that pour into your mind when you return and sit down to type.

Benefit Number 2 –Enhances Positively Your Mood – Just got into a fight on the phone with a relative or someone close to you?  Don’t punch a pillow!  Grab your bicycle, and hit the pavement for 10 to 20 minutes.  Your body will produce for you an “endorphin rush”.  (Endorphins are the body’s natural chemical mood enhancer which make you feel good - with no side effects.)  With a clear mind and a better mood, you are better able to think clearer and resolve rationally any conflict that you need to address in a calm and patient manner.

Benefit Number 3 –Helps To Relieve Minor Depression – Clinical depression notwithstanding, a 10 to 20 minute run can relieve the symptoms of mild depression, that is, of feeling overwhelmed that can sometimes be attributed to the stress of letting your thoughts run wild over-and-over in your head.  Running or bicycling  will slow the excessive thinking and worrying pattern of your mind, and will allow you to suddenly feel a greater state of peace.

Benefit Number 4 – Improves Brain Circulation and Brain Efficiency – Running or cycling demands more oxygen into the bloodstream, and part beneficiary to this increase of oxygen-intake is the brain.  The brain is fueled by oxygen, and when you give your body an oxygen-boost through jogging or cycling, you have also enhanced the efficiency of your brain power.

Did you know that Einstein was an avid bicycle rider?

Yours in health,

Charles Prosper

“The 12-Week Fitness Guru”

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