There are six distinct stages that individuals go through in the process of making a lifestyle change. These stages of change also apply to losing weight. Knowing that these stages exist and then being able to recognize them in your own life can help you stay on track towards your goal. The first step is to identify where you are in the process. Next, make a commitment to move through the stages with daily actions. A definition of each stage appears below.

Stage 1: Precontemplation: You know that excessive weight is a problem, but you deny or minimize it. “I have a few pounds to lose, but I will do it later, I am too busy now.” Others may notice the excessive weight. You may be reluctant to discuss your weight.

Stage 2: Contemplation: You are thinking about your weight and the costs and benefits of continuing with the weight or trying to lose it. You are open and willing to talk and think about your weight. However you have not, as of yet, taken definitive action.

Stage 3: Preparation: You commit to a time frame and a plan of action to lose weight. You understand that weight loss is needed and are ready to take action. You begin forming goals (healthy weight). You can picture yourself overcoming obstacles. You set a starting date. You have taken steps to enlist the help of others. You may have bought a new pair of athletic shoes or taken some other action of initiation.

Stage 4: Action: You are making daily efforts to lose weight. You follow a regular and consistent plan of action. You can describe your plan in detail. You have a commitment to facing obstacles that may stand in the way of your weight loss. You are losing weight!

Stage 5: Achievement: You have consistently followed your plan. You have resisted the urge to slip or abandon the program. You have met your goal weight. You can look back at your accomplishment.

Stage 6: Maintenance: You have basked in the glow of your victory. You are now focusing on maintaining your weight. You develop a plan of action that ensures that any lapses are controllable. You face lapses as natural developments in weight control. You remain focused on the behaviors that made you successful in your goal to lose weight.

Referring back to these stages regularly will ensure that you keep moving toward your goals. If you stay focused long enough the sixth and final stage, Maintenance, can be yours!

Have you ever wondered why some individuals are able to make amazing changes with their sports performance, while others struggle for months and even years with very little progress? Have you ever wondered why sometimes motivation quickly fades and at other times we experience a charge to achieve victory? The difference is often related to the power of setting a goal.

Goals = Success
There is a scientifically proven relationship between setting goals and achieving success.
The fact is that once you have set a specific goal, it serves like a magnet pulling you in the direction of its achievement. It quickly becomes a constant reminder of who you want to become and where you want to be. It gives you the energy and momentum needed to cross the line between knowing what you want to do and actually getting it done.

Write It Down
The best thing you can do with a goal is to write it down. When you write down your goals, you are really convincing yourself that you can in fact achieve them. The goal becomes “real” by seeing it in front of you. By clarifying what you want and writing it down, your goals come into sharper focus that very instant. The “gold standard” in goal development is the time-honored acronym: S.M.A.R.T. Smart stands for specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time frame. Below, the SMART system has been utilized to develop athletic performance goals.

Specific: Make your performance goals specific. Specificity gives you clarity and the power to feel certain you know exactly where you are headed. Also state your goal in the present tense, as if you are already heading towards it. For example, “I am running this race in 40 minutes.” Victory is always a good goal, but try being more specific by stating exactly how you will win, how long it will take, or anything else that specifically relates to your performance.

Measurable: When your fitness goals are measurable, you have a point of reference to gauge your progress. You can then chart your progress in incremental steps, and track it on a daily or weekly basis with more accuracy. If you can’t measure it, then there is no way to see the progress. And progress is motivational! Points scored, personal best times, or any other relevant statistic to your sport is a great source of motivation.

Action-Oriented: include in your goal the actions necessary to achieve that goal. By laying out the action steps you are convincing yourself of the necessity and ability to achieve the steps necessary for goal attainment. For example, you might include, “I will take 50 practice shots each day”, or “I am going to log my mileage each day until the race.” These action steps are the behaviors that are the foundation of your success.

Realistic: You know yourself better than anyone else, so only you can determine the balance between pursuing the highly unachievable and the achievement that is within your potential. You have to believe you can attain your goal in order to develop the motivation necessary to achieve it. Set your athletic goals high, for you will never know your true potential if you do not challenge yourself. But if you realize that a goal is unattainable, then make a “course correction” and adjust your goal. In fact, it is a good idea to regularly review your goals and the progress towards them so that you can adjust them up or down as necessary to keep you progressing.

Time Frame: Someone once said, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” What is your dream? Now put a deadline on when you will achieve that dream, and you have a goal to aim for. Setting a time frame, or a deadline, creates a sense of urgency. Never underestimate the power of a deadline. We all have dreams or ideas of what we want to accomplish with our fitness and in our life. But how many of us have set a deadline to accomplish them?

Grab a piece of paper and write down your athletic goals right now. I guarantee you will feel differently after doing so. And once you have written them down paste them in a place where you will be able to see and review them daily. A bathroom mirror is a great place to post your goals. It provides the opportunity to review them each morning and evening.

Achieving goals is not easy. But with the power of S.M.A.R.T., you are that much closer to success!

Step onto a treadmill, bicycle, or elliptical machine and you are likely to see a diagram or possibly even a program that is called “Fat Burning Zone”. Sounds great right? Well, lets look deeper at the process and see if it is the most effective fat burning strategy.

The Background:
When the body has been fed (you have eaten within the last 3 to 4 hours) it uses a mix of fat and carbohydrate to fuel the energy needs of our cells. Researchers can quantify this mix with high accuracy in an exercise physiology laboratory. When the exercise is of a low intensity, our bodies preferentially use fat as fuel. Thus, low intensity exercise does predominantly rely on fat to fuel contracting muscles.

As the exercise intensity increases, the body progressively switches to a predominance of carbohydrate utilization. By exercising at a lower intensity a greater percentage of fat is being utilized for energy. This is the rationale for equipment manufacturers creation of the “fat burning zone”.

A Closer Look:
Below is a table of energy expenditure for 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at three different intensity levels of 30, 50 and 70 percent of maximum heart rate. As the exercise intensity increases so do the total number of calories burned. You may also notice that as intensity increases the percentage of energy from body fat decreases. However, the increase in calories is substantial enough to out weight the decrease in body fat utilization. You will burn more body fat at a higher intensity level. Thus the “fat burning zone” is a myth. Don’t just take my word for it. Google “Fat Burning Zone Myth” and see for yourself.

INTENSITY Calories Burned % Fat Utilization Total Fat Burned
30% of MHR 300 60% 180
50% of MHR 480 50% 240
70% of MHR 660 40% 264

100% Fat Burning:
Now, I am going to take this example one step further, and change the way you think about burning body fat. The above example demonstrates that the body uses carbohydrates and fat. The carbohydrates come from the food we eat. Let me ask you, what if the person exercising runs out of carbohydrates? What does the body use then?

The human body can only hold about 300 calories worth of glycogen in the liver. Once that is gone, the body then relies completely on body fat for energy. This means that if you exercise when no carbohydrates (Glycogen) are available, you are burning 100% fat!

The more calories you burn, the more body fat that has to be broken down to meet caloric needs.

Many people mistakenly think that the body will utilize muscle for energy. Muscle is made up of chains of amino acids. The body will break down muscle only when it needs amino acids to repair cells. It does not break down muscle for energy. Muscle is not an energy source. People who lose muscle while dieting or restricting calories do so because their body needs the amino acids. A restricted calorie diet is also going to be limited in amino acids. This is why your nutrition program has adequate amounts of protein. This ensures that your body will not have to go hunting for amino acids in your muscle cells.

A recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, part of the Louisiana State University system, found that people will lose weight on a variety of diets, it simply comes down to calories.

The study, financed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, had 811 participants over a two year period consuming their calories from 4 different diets.

Here are some of the findings that were published in the  New England Journal of Medicine:

• In six months, the dieters lost an average of 13 pounds no matter which diet they were on.

• After two years, they had kept off an average of 9 pounds and lost 1 to 3 inches in the waist, regardless of which diet they were on.

• Dieters had improvements in heart-disease risk factors, including increases in the HDL (good) cholesterol, and decreases in LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fats) at six months and two years.

• People reported similar levels of fullness, hunger and satisfaction on the different diets.

This reconfirms our philosophy that it is important to create a caloric deficit in order to create lasting weight loss.

]]> http://emeryonline.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/the-secret-to-weight-loss/feed/ 0 Eric Barber http://emeryonline.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/weight-loss-program/ http://emeryonline.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/weight-loss-program/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:43:01 +0000 Eric Barber http://emeryonline.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]> We are excited to announce the availability of our time proven Weight Management Program for personal trainers, training facilities, small gyms and anyone looking to increase the results their clients achieve in weight loss.

Stay tuned for more information on how to increase the results your clients or members get. This is a chance to substantially increase referrals, balloon your income and maximize client retention.

Call 954-659-9446 for more information.

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