Weight management for sport optimization
            Or How to lose those 7 vanity pounds preventing you from climbing 5.12 or biking the Alps. Or How not to ‘drink butter’ and lose weight

Talking about weight management is difficult without conjuring up images of late night TV and pills that melt the weight off, or the exercise equipment that will burn calories without any effort on your part. We are bombarded with messages that create the false impression that you can cheat your bodies natural energy storage systems and the laws of nature. My favorites are the commercials that visually show the fat melting off the virtual person, as the secret ingredients of the pill ravage through the body. If you are quick, you may catch the small print saying that such magic is part of a balanced nutrition and exercise program that would take the weight off without buying the pill in the first place.

The fact of the matter is that weight management is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Overweight-related medical conditions are the second leading cause of death in America. Many people believe that weight loss is a mater of willpower. This understates the issue and the many factors involved. It has been said that for adults the difficulty of losing a significant amount of weight and keeping it off long term is similar to the difficulty of trying to learn a foreign language. Either goal can be achieved by anyone who has competent guidance and who is prepared to invest sufficient effort.

Weight loss for sport or health is achieved by increasing the difference between the calories put in to your body, and the calories burned from sitting on the couch, exercising, and eating. I bet you didn’t know that the act of eating and digestion takes energy! This is called the thermic effect of food. Eating smaller but more frequent meals will cost you more in calories to process than just 2 or 3 large meals. This value is about 10% of your total calories out.

The body uses calories to just hang out, breathe, pump blood, and think about that next hike you’re planning. These activities can take up to 70% of your ‘calorie out’ expenditure, which is referred to as your resting metabolic rate. Whew, I didn’t know that living was such hard work! If you can make small changes in revving up your metabolism, you can successfully tip the balance toward weight loss.

The most effective way to increase metabolism is through exercise. Strength training, for example, increases the amount of muscle mass. This added muscle mass expends more calories even as you sit on the couch! Increased muscle mass gives you the double benefit of burning more calories as you exercise, along with burning the extra calories required just to pump blood to those burgeoning muscles all day long. There’s a triple whammy effect with more vigorous exercise, which jacks up the metabolic rate even more for up to 24 hours after an intense workout.

In order to know how much you can eat and still lose weight, you have to add up all the calories spent exercising, plus those determined by your resting metabolic rate.(RMR) RMR is highly variable from person to person and may explain why one person can eat more than another and not gain weight. A rough guess of resting metabolic rate can be achieved from charts, however this data can be in error by as much as 20%! Yikes, I thought you said I could have my Krispy Kremes!! A better option is to have your metabolic rate measured professionally by a device called a metabolic cart. This handy technological innovation provides an accurate determination of resting metabolic rate. The test procedure is painless, and requires you to breathe into a mask (while thinking about your next hike) for about an hour.

Armed with accurate knowledge of your resting metabolic rate, you can now tailor an eating and exercise plan to fine-tune your fitness and training program. A deficit of 500 calories a day will take 1 pound off per week! Below are some helpful hints to supercharge your resting metabolic rate and put your weight loss into afterburner mode:

1) If you drink alcohol, you may want to consider reducing or eliminating it. Alcohol isn’t stored in the body, it is used immediately as fuel. Because it is burned in preference to fat, any fat that is eaten is more likely to be stored in your love handles. Drinking alcohol with a high fat meal has been referred to as being like “drinking butter”. Many people who drink alcohol have been able to lose significant amounts of weight by eliminating alcohol from their diet.

2) Exercise, Exercise, Exercise. Initially try to spend 30-45minutes of moderate intensity exercise 3 to 5 days per week.

3) Over time, exercise should increase to 30-60 minutes every day, with more intense sessions 2 times a week as you become comfortable with the exercise. Remember, this increases your metabolic rate!

4) Include strength training to have as much muscle on board to burn those calories while you are counting sheep. (Visit our website to see our previous articles on strength training for more specifics: www.winthroppt.com/library.html )

5) Because your resting metabolic rate speeds up after each meal (due to the thermic effect of food), you may benefit from eating 5-6 smaller meals spread throughout the day.

Research tells us there are key factors to determine how successful you will be in achieving weight loss or fitness goals. It takes more than I can give you in a short “how to lose weight and eat all the chocolate you want” article. The best advice I can give you is to develop a support team of friends, family, and professionals. The following are factors that can help ensure your long-term success: