Q&A for: 1-Jan-06
1195. Q:
Mike i saw on a Raisin Bran cereal box that said you could lose weight by replacing 2 of your meals with a bowl of bran cereal. What do you think of that? It sounds like it would work.
A:
That is not a very good weight loss plan for most people. Raisin bran is a fairly mediocre food when trying to lose weight (plain bran flakes without raisins would be somewhat better and plain old-fashioned oatmeal would be better still). So the only way this idea would even remotely work is if you replace even worse foods with raisin bran -- like say if your current diet consists of 2 pizzas and 2 cheeseburgers per day and you replace 2 of those meals with raisin bran, that would clearly be an improvement.
If you want to have a very simple diet plan, like substituting 2 meals per day with some specific food, you'd do best by substituting them with a big bowl of green salad with a tiny bit of olive oil and herb to taste. That's a MUCH better choice of food than raisin bran. Of course you can do far better with a more complete balanced diet and exercise -- fill out Mike's Fitness Guide specifying 'Lose Weight' as your goal for a complete customized nutrition and exercise prescription.
1196. Q:
How do you tone muscles?
A:
Muscle toning is a very misleading term. The only thing you can physically do to your muscles is either grow or reduce them in size. You have virtually no control over their shape. What you CAN do is lose the fat that covers up the muscle and expose the defined shape of the muscle to view instead of the shapeless fat. That gives the effect of 'muscle toning', even though it's all about losing the fat rather than anything to do with the muscle. So, to summarize, toning muscles is actually just losing fat!
The best way to lose fat is through a healthy balanced diet, whole-body weight training, and moderate cardio as described here. Weight training that's part of that program will also add a little bit of size to your muscles, but it will be minimal since losing fat (and weight) is not conducive to building muscle. After you've lost some fat you will see your muscle shape more clearly over all of your body thus achieving the 'toned' look. Good luck!
|
