Starting September 1st, Fitness South is donating $5 from every new membership sold to Hillcrest High School’s Physical Education Department. Come join Fitness South and help us give back to the community.

Refer a friend that joins* and get entered into a monthly raffle with a gift certificate from either

WOODS & WATER        ACADEMY SPORTS        TERA LANE

*You will be entered into the drawing each time that you refer someone that joins.

Multiple shots, lack of energy, point counting, frustration and despair after gaining back weight lost; these all describe the results of various popular diet programs in Tuscaloosa. After these diets have been tried, and individuals find that ther cannot continue on the extreme low calorie intake; the only thing lost is time and money. At Fitness South we separate ourselves from these dietary approaches through tried and tested nutritional methods based on common sense. Let me explain how these approaches don’t work and how we are different.

Extreme Low Calorie Diets

The process of weight loss and weight gain is controlled by laws of physics. The Law of Energy Conservation states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changes forms. The food you eat is changed within your body into various tissues. Depending on the amount of calories you are consuming and the need, these calories can end up as muscle or fat. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that a change in a system’s (body) internal energy (stored energy=body composition) is equal to the amount taken in from the enviroment (calories consumed) minus the workload done on the enviroment (calories burned). So, your body composition (or how your body “looks”- how much fat/muscle you carry) is determined by how many calories you are consuming versus how many you are burning. If you take in more calories than you consume, you will gain weight (if you weight training some or all will end up as muscle as opposed to fat). If you take in less calories than you burn, you will lose weight (weight training will minimize/eliminate muscle loss). Now, the problem with extreme low calorie diets is the kind of weight you end up losing. If calorie intake is too low, you will lose lean mass (muscle). This is a problem because your level of lean mass determines how many calories you will burn. The more lean mass, the more calories burned. As stated above, you have to consume less calories than you burn to lose weight. As your metabolism drops on these diets (muscle loss), you have to eat less and less to keep losing weight. If you lose enough muscle, that you have to consume 900-1200 calories a day to maintain your weight 900-1200 is what you have to eat for the rest of your life to stay at that weight. Your metabolism is wrecked, and as soon as you start to consume an ordinary adult calorie intake all the weight will come back; much of it being fat. The two extremes, or yo-yo dieting is very unhealthy and completery uneccesary. At Fitness South, we find the right amount of calories to consume and incorporate foods you enjoy. A key component in our Fat Loss programs is resistance training and fat loss is steady for those who follow the program. Stop by today and talk to Luke or David about what we can do to help you reach your goals.

David Leverett- 2005 Mr Alabama Masters Division 

Owner of Fitness South is now available for Personal Training. David specializes in Body Fat Reduction and Lean Muscle Increase. Contact David at 344-5555, to reach your fitness goals.

Personal Training Packages

3 One on One Sessions- $99

6 One on One Sessions- $199

12 One on One Sessions- $425*

(The 12 session package includes the One on One Nutrition program)

Nutrition Package

One on One Nutritional Counseling, Daily Dietary Plan, Online Apex Nutrition Registration

way-to-go-kids-flyer1Starting Saturday Janurary 23rd, Fitness South will be partnering with DCH Health System for the Way To Go Kids Nutrition and Fitness Program. With the epidemic of childgood obesity, its never too soon to teach children healthy eating and exercise habits. Children ages 7- 12 are eligible for the program. Sessions run for 5 weeks. The first session is January 23rd- February 27th, the second sessions is April 3rd- May 1st.

For more information or to sign up, call 205-759-7514 or email ClinicalNutrition@dchsystem.com

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I Part I we defined metabolism as the rate at which one’s body burns calories. We discussed the laws of physics in relation to weight loss and weight gain. In Part II, the differences between fat and muscle and their effect on weight loss was considered. In today’s post, the “secret” to increasing one’s metabolism will be given.

Why Increase Metabolism?

If you remember the laws of physics examined in Part I, they stated that the gaining or losing of weight was determined by the intake of calories relative to the amount of calories one was burning daily. If one was to consume more calories than burned over a period of time, weight gain would result. Taking in less calories than the daily caloric burn over a period of time would result in weight loss. The higher the metabolism, the more calories that can be consumed without going over daily caloric needs.

Increasing Metabolism

Remember also, that muscle is an “active” tissue. Muscle tissue both expends and requires calories to maintain itself. The more muscle, the more calories required to maintain and the more expended. So, to increase metabolism there needs to be an increase of muscle tissue. If one was to change their body composition (Part I) so that there was less fat and more muscle there would be an increase in metabolism and it would be easier to maintain a healthy weight.

Enough Already, What is the Answer?

The question still remains, “How do I increase my metabolism?”, which as we now see is the same question as “How do I increase lean muscle mass?”. The only way to do this comes through the process of weight training, and the subsequent recovery from this weight training.

Weight training causes small tears in muscle tissue, called microtrauma. When this microtrauma occurs, the body uses nutrients (notably protein) to rebuild the tears. As a result, the body rebuilds the tissue stronger and larger as a defense mechanism against future microtrauma (which is also why more demanding workouts are required to cause more microtrauma). This rebuilding can only take place if there are adequate nutrients in place to rebuild this tissue, and if sufficient rest is given for the change to take place (why you need breaks between working muscle groups). With the new muscle tissue there is an increase in calorie expenditure, and a resulting increase in metabolism. Again, all of this only happens through weight training.

In Part IV, this new insight into metabolism will be used to address fat loss.

In Part I, we discussed the definition of metabolism as the rate at which your body burns calories. We also covered the Laws of physics in relation to weight loss and weight gain, which dictated that a consumption of calories over the daily calorie needs would end in weight gain; consumption of calories below the daily calorie needs would result in weight loss.

The Difference

In this Part, we will discuss metabolism as it relates to muscle gain and fat loss. Now, at the beginning I want to distinguish two related but different things- weight loss/weight gain with fat loss/muscle gain. I need to distinguish because the first doesn’t necessarily equate to the other. At least absolutely. What I mean is, one can lose weight and it not all be fat- it could be a combination of fat and muscle. One could also gain weight and it not all be muscle- it could be fat and muscle. But, calorie intake is a good reference point to insure the ”best” results of both. You can insure you lose mostly fat, by taking in enough of the right kind of calories below your daily calorie burn and weight train regularly. People often make the mistake of taking in too few calories- which leads to a breakdown of muscle tissue. Let’s take a look at the actual tissues themselves to see why this a bad thing.

Muscle

Muscle is required for your body to perform all it’s functions. More specifically, muscle comes as a physiological response to the type of stress you put your body under when lifting weights. Muscle is a biologically “active” tissue- it both stores and expends energy. Because of this, muscle is what is deemed “calorically expensive”; muscle costs your body alot to maintain (in the form of calories).

Muscle requires alot of energy to maintain because it expends alot. The more muscle one has, the more calories that will be used by your body. Remember that one has to take in less calories than one consumes over a period of time to lose weight. So, being able to burn more calories makes this process easier.

Fat

Your body stores fat when it is under extreme stress (like stranded on a desert island), or when there is an excess of calorie intake. When one takes in too many calories (beyond what your body needs- including preforming basic functions and repairing tissues like muscle), the excess that isn’t excreted is stored. Your body is like an individual very efficient with their money- whatever isn’t used is put away. Fat stores are a “savings account” in your body. Just like we don’t like to use up our savings unless we have to, your body doesn’t like to burn fat unless necessary.

I hope this helps. In Part III I will discuss how one can increase their metabolism and decrease fat stores.

The Metabolism is a frequent term in all talk of fitness and nutrition. However, most don’t understand what the term is referring to. Let’s see if we can sort it out.

Metabolism

Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns energy. This energy is also known as calories. So, Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. This rate is determined by your body composition. Body composition is how much muscle versus fat an individual has on their body. Those who have a higher metabolism have a body composition that is composed of more muscle mass with lower fat. Those with a lower metabolism have a body composition that is comprised of higher fat and lower muscle mass. The higher the metabolism, the more calories burned.

Why is Metabolism important?

One may ask why all this talk of metabolism is important. At the end of the day, weight loss and weight gain center around metabolism. We stated earlier that a calorie is a unit of energy. According to the laws of physics, energy is not created or destroyed; energy simply changes forms (Law of Energy Conservation). An example would be the change of water to an ice cube. Now, more specifically calories are changed into various tissues in our body, like fat or muscle. The laws of physics also state that any change in a system’s (or body) internal energy is equal to the amount of energy taken in from it’s enviroment (calories consumed) versus the workload done on that enviroment (calories burned). So, any changes in a person’s weight is equal to the amount of calories they are consuming versus how many they are burning. If one was to take in more calories than they burn over an extended period of time, this would produce weight gain. If one was to take in less calories than they burn over an extended period of time, this would equate to weight loss. In Part II, I will explain how this applies to fitness and the process of fat loss and muscle gain.