Bijai Fitness Made Easy Video

http://www.vimeo.com/24358208

Healthy cooking with Randy Edwards

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Total Body Magazine "Pilot Episode"

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On a "diet"? Take pictures each week

 I try to teach my clients not use the word diet and to stay off the scales. The word diet should be associated with your daily food intake at any given time. Americans tend to associate the word diet with just losing weight. Many of the diet plans out in the market today will lead to “yoyo” dieting. That is when someone loses weight only to gain it back later often gaining more than they lost. If a person wishes to lose weight and keep it off they will need to make a lifestyle change to their "nutrition plan". Most diet programs restrict calories too much. If you are not getting enough calories your body thinks it is being starved. It goes into starvation mode and starts holding on to body fat. The body starts feeding on lean body mass like muscle. This is why people wonder why they don't look the same at a given weight as they did when they were younger. They have dieted away lean body mass and not body fat. (refer to my "How many calories do you need" blog for your calorie needs)  This is why the scale is a bad way to judge your progress. A scale can only tell a person how much weight they have lost rather than how much body fat has been lost. I have had clients tell me they don't care what they lose they just want to lose weight. Here is the problem with that- muscle weighs more than fat. Compare your muscle to a ten pound weight in a gym made out of iron. Now think of fat as styrofoam. How much styrofoam would it take to equal the ten pounds the iron weight weighs? So do you want to lose that big pile of styrofoam, i.e.: fat or the ten pounds of iron, i.e.: muscle? Dieting away muscle leaves you with a soft look because you have not lost the body fat you wanted to. Most people think it is age related but it comes down to not enough calories. When you don't get enough calories you slow your body’s furnace down otherwise known as your metabolism. When a person stops the caloric restriction they usually gain more body fat back because they have slowed down their metabolism. Hence "yoyo dieting". Once you get your caloric needs figured out how can you check your progress if you don't weigh yourself on the scale? The very best way is to have a body fat measurement done. If you belong to a gym there should be someone on staff that can do the measurement for you. I also realize that some people just don't have access to someone who can do this. An easy solution is to take a picture once a week. Take the photo on the same day of the week as close to the same time of day as you can. I suggest when you first wake up in the morning. Take a photo wearing shorts and no shirt. Women can take one in a bikini, bra and panties, panties and no bra or shorts and tight shirt. The pictures are for you only so the lack of clothing isn't an issue. Losing body fat is a slower process than a crash diet. You see yourself everyday and it may not seem like you are losing body fat. By taking a photo you can compare photos and determine if you are losing fat or not. When you have lost the body fat you want to lose just go back to the calorie calculator in my "how many calories do you need" blog and figure out how many calories you need to maintain. Losing body fat instead of your lean body mass will leave you leaner, harder and happier. If you need any help figuring your calories out or designing a nutrition plan that will work for you email me at randy30_1999@yahoo.com or on Facebook. I want to give a shout out to Amy Ballard. Congratulations on your success so far. Keep it up. You are doing a great job!