By: Anthony Campo
When you are setting goals make sure to look at the big picture. Weight loss goals can be dangerous because much too often attention is placed on the short term. Believe it or not it is pretty easy to lose some weight fast. Athletes use this concept frequently in order to make a certain weight. It involves manipulating water and glycogen so that the scale says a certain weight. There is no real positive change of body composition. Anybody who is successful using these techniques understands it is just for the short term because in the long term it could have harmful effects to their body composition and health/performance.
The problem is that companies today make unrealistic claims about weight loss, and sell plans that emphasize short-term methods that will make the scale show a lower weight initially. Shows like The Biggest Loser use weight manipulation techniques at weigh in to show a perceived lower weight. The rest of the time, they will emphasize eating less and doing cardio as the primary solution for losing weight. This might show initial short-term weight loss, but is actually damaging the individual’s metabolism and therefore body composition for the long run. You would be shocked to see many of the individuals who have participated in shows like The Biggest Loser now. The majority of them are now worse off because the training involved no real education on how to effectively improve metabolism and composition for the long-term.
*Take home point
Eating fewer calories and doing primarily steady state cardio for exercise will simply slow your metabolism down over time and have a negative impact on your body chemistry and composition in the long term. Emphasizing eating less and cardio as your main tools for weight loss is like cutting off your leg to lose weight. Sure you have lost weight in the short-term, but what about the long-term?
*Solution
Instead, emphasize eating more calories from foods that match your goals and resistance training. Everybody’s training should have a cardiovascular element; however, many resistance exercises train your cardiovascular system more effectively than steady rate, medium intensity cardio on a machine.