Q&A for: 27-Jun-06
1636. Q:
When we exercise does the fat we have round our middle – is this fat burned off or does the body spread the fat around the body in a more even distribution?
A:
That fat is burned off, but it comes from all over your body, not just from the waist area. So the net effect is that you look leaner everywhere, not just at the waist. Of course it also means that it takes longer to burn off the waist area fat.
1637. Q:
how many calories are burnt jumproping
A:
About ten calories a minute. Remember that while cardio like jumproping is great for you healthwise, doing only it alone is NOT the best way to lose extra weight. Check out this article to learn the most efficient way to lose fat and keep it off afterwards.
1638. Q:
Hi Mike just found your excellent site and hope you can be of help to someone who is desperate.After having two children my stomach muscles are non existant and i need to know if i am stuck with this or is there anything i could try to try and tone an tighten them. P.S.husbands booked us a two week holiday leaving in 3 1/2 weeks any magic cure
A:
It's not that your muscles disappeared but that you've gained a layer of fat on your stomach which completely covers up the muscle. So your goal should be to lose that extra layer of fat as much as possible. Good news is that YES, you most definitely can do something about it. Bad news is that there's not a ton you can do in three and a half weeks (as you probably realize yourself), so your short-term progress will be quite limited.
For your immediate goal, the best you can do is try to lose about 8-10 pounds of weight in these three and a half weeks. Probably about third to a half of that weight loss will come from the fat in the stomach area which will make some difference. To lose these pounds you just need to do the obvious: cut out ALL junk and sweets, reduce portion sizes of your other meals and eat more green veggies (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green beans, etc). Walk, jog, or run (at whatever constant pace you can) every other day for 30-45 minutes. Doing this will give you a short-term weight loss that you need for the holiday.
Once you come back from the vacation you can start on more permanent long-term changes. The problem with trying to continue this short-term program for months is that you'll very soon hit the wall -- with severe caloric deficit and a lot of cardio your metabolism will become lower and lower and eventually the weight loss will stop completely even though you won't be eating much at all. At that point you'll likely actually start gaining weight and fat back. This is the unfortunate consequence of most crash-type diet where you lose a lot of weight quickly by eating little and doing a lot of cardio. So this is NOT a realistic sustainable long-term program for most people.
Instead your long-term program should emphasize slow gradual weight loss (no faster than about one pound per week) while keeping your metabolism revving as high as possible -- high metabolism both keeps your weight loss going and prevents fat from returning later.
The first way you keep metabolism high is by eating several small balanced meals throughout the day. Check out my nutrition article and especially the section titled 'Create Your Own Healthy Meals'. It'll tell you how to classify various foods and what food combinations make good meals (it'll be up to you to come up with actual recipes of course). When in doubt, eat more leafy veggies! Also drink plenty of plain water and stay away from pretty much all other beverages (unsweetened tea or coffee are OK).
The second way you keep your metabolism up is by doing resistance training (typically weight training). You can start at home just doing bodyweight exercises and maybe later get some dumbbells and move up to this program. You can also continue your running, just remember that your goal is to lose weight SLOOOOWLY -- if you start losing weight too fast due to all the running and exercising, then you'll need to increase your portion sizes.
Hope that helped a bit, good luck and have a good vacation!
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