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Truly Huge Fitness Tips
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FITNESS TIP FOR 9/4/2002
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Bodybuilding and Fat Loss
HOW NOT PROPERLY TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS
COULD BE THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
Oliver Wolter
Here is an example of a recent e-mail I got:
"Hi Oliver,
I just started with my fat loss diet a few weeks ago, but it seems
that since 2 weeks I am not losing any further weight - what can I do?"
STOP
What does it mean to lose weight?
What is this weight?
Water - muscles or fat?
And the letter goes on.
"It seems I started losing muscles as well, because I already
lost 1/2 inch on my arms."
Again - What is this weight?
Water - muscles or fat?
Probably you will think "is he unable to read? - he lost 1/2 inch on
his arms - so it must be muscles".
But this is not the truth. It can be muscles, but it can be fat or
water as well.
Weight and inches are not the same as muscles.
Wow - bold statement but this is the god honest truth. Or would you
say that if you lost 2 inches on your waist it must be muscles?
Well - I bet you would say "hey if I am losing 2 inches on my waist
it must be fat". While this is in most cases right it can also be right
for your arms and your chest and all other body parts.
Look - your body doesn't store all his fat for the "bad times" on your
waist. Probably your body prefers to store its fat on your waist but
that doesn't mean it doesn't store it anywhere else. In fact you will
find your body fat stored all over your body.
But fact is - you cannot decide where you want to lose fat. It's your
bodies decision and there is nothing you can do about that.
But now I want to come back to what you should do if you want to
lose fat. It's really easy and probably you are already doing this:
Tracking your body fat levels what you should your care about.
Tracking your body fat levels is essential on any fat loss diet. But
what is the right way?
The right way is always the most reliable way!
But what is the most reliable way?
To answer this question I want to ask you what kind of body fat you
care about and want to get rid off?
Some body fat stored somewhere inside of you or the body fat
anybody sees at the surface under your skin?
Well I bet it is the second one and this is exactly the point where
you should measure your body fat. You should measure your skin
fold thickness by using a body fat caliper.
Nothing is as reliable or as cheap as good old body fat calipers.
It seems half of the fitness world is using some kind of electronic
body fat measuring tools. But I say - it's a waste of time and
money if you build up or tone your muscles as well.
You can find it in any manual I know of: "this scale is not intended
for people involved in a muscle building workout routine", but
everybody seems to ignore this.
These electronic tools are calibrated with data of people who have
average body fat and muscle levels. But if you workout with weights
you don't have an average body composition.
How will I know?
I tested several electronic measuring tools on some of my personal
training clients with very low body fat levels and washboard abs.
Depending on this measuring tools - all had more than 10% body fat
- one even had over 27% body fat on one of these electronic tools.
Could you think of having washboard abs with more than 27% body
fat?
No way!
So I want to come back to the body fat calipers. These are some great
tools to measure your progress when it comes to losing body fat.
If you measure - always use the same formula to calculate your body
fat levels. There are a few different formulas out there and they all
give different results. But the most important thing is the measurement
itself. So if you lost one millimeter on your waist skin fold - you lost
some kind of fat on your waist.
Best regards,
Oliver Wolter
For more info on German Strength Coach Oliver Wolter go to: X-Size Bodybuilding Software
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