Aerobic Exercises the Better Bet

While it is important to do weightlifting if you want to maintain muscle tone, if your goal is to lose fat then cardio exercises is far better than resistance training, researchers say. And gets far better results.

The study in question was conducted by North Carolina researchers and is the largest randomized trial ever done to directly compare changes in body composition induced by comparable amounts of time spent doing aerobic and resistant training, or both in combination, among previously inactive overweight or obese non-diabetic adults.

So how did they do it?

A total of 234 previously sedentary overweight or obese males and females, ages 18 to 70 years of age, were enrolled in one of three eight-month supervised protocols: aerobic training (AT), resistance training (RT), or a combination (AT/RT). Of the total 234 overweight / obese people, 119 participants completed the trials and had complete data for the variables of interest for the study. The remaining 115 people gave up part way through.

The people assigned to aerobic exercises did so vigorously, at about 70-85 percent of their maximum heart rate. They exercised approx. 45 minutes three days per week throughout the study period.

The people assigned to weight lifting also exercised three days a week for a period of approx. 45 minutes, completing three sets of 8-12 reps on eight different resistance machines that targeted all major muscle groups. The amount of resistance was increased throughout the study to maintain a steady level of challenge as the participants gained strength.

The people who were assigned to AT/RT performed all the exercises assigned to both AT and RT groups, for a total of approx. 90 minutes.

At the end of the study each person was assessed for weight, body composition, waist circumference, cardiopulmonary fitness and strength compared to their baseline.

The researchers found that the groups assigned to aerobic exercises and aerobic plus resistance training lost significantly more weight than those that did resistance training only. In fact, some of those who did resistance training only actually gained weight due to an increase in lean body mass and didn't lose any fat weight.

Fat mass and waist circumference significantly decreased in the AT and AT/RT groups, but were not altered in RT. However, measures of lean body mass significantly increased in RT and AT/RT, but not in AT. The findings show that aerobic exercise is more effective in reducing fat.

Lean muscle mass increased with both RT and AT/RT, but not AT. Having the benefit to of both modes of exercise allowed AT/RT to decrease body fat percent significantly more than either AT or RT due to decreased fat mass combined with increased lean body mass.

Given the results it is clear that weight training isn't very effective at reducing fat. Cardio exercises is the clear winner when it comes to fat reduction, although a mixture of both is certainly advised if people want to both cut fat and gain muscle.

"If increasing muscle mass and strength is a goal, then resistance training is required. However, the majority of Americans could experience health benefits due to weight and fat loss. The best option in that case, given limited time for exercise, is to focus on aerobic training. When you lose fat, it is likely you are losing visceral fat, which is known to be associated with cardiovascular and other health benefits," says the lead author of the study, Leslie H. Willis, an exercise physiologist at Duke University Medical Center.

As a personal trainer in Toronto I must admit that there are some people in this industry who are pushing the idea that you can achieve all the results cardio can using weight lifting... but they don't have the science to support their claims, and it is, frankly, putting all of your eggs in one basket.

The clear solution is a mixture of both cardio and weight lifting, modified to a person's goals and needs. Because if you're only lifting weights and wondering why you aren't losing any fat, the answer becomes pretty obvious - Its time to do more cardio.

Three Exercise and Dietary Myths

Time to do some Myth Busting!

There are quite a few common misconceptions in the health and fitness industry. Here are three common fitness / diet myths that need to be debunked.

1. Eat a lot of protein to gain muscle = Myth

Protein is the muscle's building block, but its not the only thing muscles need. Protein helps to repair torn muscle tissue. You also need vitamins and nutrients from eating a balanced diet. Too much protein in a diet can cause dehydration, overwhelm the kidneys and stress the heart. Plus a high meat diet will make you feel plain crappy due to all the bacteria in meat, and won't give you the energy required for intense lifting sessions. Instead, aim for a balance of all healthy food groups.

2. Sweating means you are working out harder = Myth

Not true. Sweat is a mechanism used to cool the body, it doesn't burn much calories. The amount of work you can do DECREASES when your body is using some of your energy to produce sweat. Furthermore, energy is lost by sweating because it causes the blood supply to rush toward the skin and away from the muscles - resulting in more muscle fatigue. The heart responds by pumping harder, to replace the blood from the muscles. Too much sweating can also cause dehydration, heat stroke or collapse. Don't induce sweat. It really makes no contribution to fitness.

3. Eating food at night is more fattening = Myth

Your body doesn't tell the time. It doesn't care if you eat after 9 PM. This common myth comes from the idea that you won't have time to burn off food before bed. However, recent studies show that it's not the time you eat but how much is consumed in a 24 hour period. If you're eating within your caloric range, typically 1,800 to 2,000, then you are fine! Skipping meals and binging before you sleep leads to weight gain but if you can't eat a good meal until after work, it won't make you store any more fat than the people who eat their biggest meal for lunch. Besides, we burn fat all of the time, even when we sleep.

Sleeping burns 69 calories per hour. It is not a lot, but its handy to know.

Sitting and doing a minor task is approx 60 calories per hour.

Walking at 2 mph is 175 calories per hour.

Sleeping for 8 hours = 552 calories burned.
Sitting for 12 hours = 720 calories burned.
Walking for 4 hours = 700 calories burned.

Total 1,972

Note: All calorie estimates based on someone who weighs 155 lbs.

Thus it is possible that if you eat healthy and just walk 4 hours every day as part of your routine that you can maintain your weight. However many people don't actually walk for 4 hours per day unless its part of their job. Many people in North America walk less than 2 hours per day and spend most of their time sitting behind a desk, in front of a TV or computer, or behind the wheel of a car.

And if they're binging on food then their waistline will be ever expanding.

Just a single hour of intense exercising, only 4% of your day, however can make a huge difference. An hour long swim for example will burn approx. 450 calories alone.

Feeling Anxious? Rethink Your Diet

Anxiety is a natural reaction to stress but too much anxiety can become a debilitating condition and paralyze your ability to make rational decisions. As such certain food factors can exacerbate anxiety levels and have a negative impact on day to day living. Aside from yoga, meditation and exercise, there are several key dietary factors that could be helping or hindering symptoms of anxiety.

Dietary Changes for Anxiety

1. Switch to Decaf

Caffeine stimulates the nervous system, and too much of it can be overwhelming to your brain. It can cause nervousness and panic attacks. Caffeine is in coffee, tea, pop, and even chocolate. Reducing the amount of caffeine you are eating will show almost instant improvements for anxiety related restlessness and irritability.

In some cases some people may also have a caffeine addiction, which is itself the cause of the feelings of anxiety.

2. Cut Back on Alcohol

When people feel stressed they sometimes reach for a drink to "Calm their nerves." Unfortunately booze causes dehydration, insomnia and too much will just give you a hangover. Alcohol sometimes acts as a depressant that will bring out negative emotions in some people. The source of their anxiety could end up feeling even more exaggerated and ultimately, they wind up feeling even more upset both mentally and physically.

3. Eat Complex Carbs

When we're upset or anxious turning to comfort food is fairly common. Ice cream is a popular one if the comic strip Cathy is to be believed. Other xamples include chocolate, candy, potato chips, cookies, etc. The problem with simple sugars, aside from being having no nutritional value, is that they don't keep you full for very long, and cause a constant craving for more sugar. Complex carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, beans and legumes take longer to digest.So i nstead of picking up chips when you're feeling anxious prepare some veggies and hummus or even air popped popcorn instead.

I personally like carrot sticks and Jell-O in such situations.

Eating healthy and avoiding anxiety inducing things like caffeine and alcohol is the first steps toward minimizing anxiety. Or if you do consume those things also drink a lot of water to help minimize fatigue, headaches and stress, all caused by dehydration.

Exercise Motivational Quotes

"Spero Meliora is the family motto of the Moffat family. In Latin it means to reach higher, to strive for greater things. Such things are worth doing."
- Charles Moffat

"A healthy outside starts from the inside."
- Robert Urich

"I believe that how you feel is very important to how you look - that healthy equals beautiful."
- Victoria Principal

"I really believe the only way to stay healthy is to eat properly, get your rest and exercise. If you don't exercise and do the other two, I still don't think it's going to help you that much."
- Mike Ditka

"The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years."
- Deepak Chopra

"It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it."
-Epictetus

"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want."

"You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough."

"Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed."

"Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you."

"Never have regrets because at one point everything you did in life was exactly what you wanted."

Alexa Ranking - CardioTrek in the Top 5000 for Toronto

Here is a bizarre yet interesting bit of news...

According to Alexa.com (a website which tracks the popularity of every website on the planet) Cardio Trek is in the Top 5000 websites for Toronto by popularity.

And the vast majority of those sites have nothing to do with exercise, which likely places Cardio Trek in the Top 100 Exercise websites for Toronto. Basically what it means is that for all websites everywhere, Cardio Trek is in the Top 5000 when it comes to Torontonians - and that is competing against YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, p*rn websites, etc.

I call that "successful local marketing".

Here is the actual text from Alexa:

Cardiotrek.ca is ranked #1,064,646 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. The site is relatively popular among users in the city of Toronto (where it is ranked #4,915). Visitors to the site spend roughly two minutes on each pageview and a total of four minutes on the site during each visit. About 68% of Cardiotrek.ca's visitors are in Canada, where it has attained a traffic rank of 20,861. Visitors to the site view an average of 2.3 unique pages per day.

So as exercise websites go Cardio Trek is becoming pretty popular - and I've only been working on it for 13 months. Initially I wasn't working on it much at all, but in September 2012 I started posting more often and it really took off in a hurry. For reference many competitor websites will have been up for years and would be jealous of the sheer number of visitors I get.

eg. I know of a rival company in Toronto that only gets 3 to 5 visitors per day (which is pathetic and shows a complete lack of advertising on their part), whereas Cardio Trek is currently clocking over 700 per day.

I chalk that down to two things:

#1. I give free exercise advice on the site. And everybody likes free advice. Including Americans, who are my 2nd biggest source of visitors and make up roughly 30% of my visitors.

#2. Before I was a personal trainer I was a SEO expert (and still am a SEO expert), which means I know how to promote things online. I still do SEO work for the real estate industry and a select number of clients. So not to brag, but I like to be good at my job.

So now I just need to set myself a higher goal and get in the Top 2500 for Toronto. Goal setting is a big part of both SEO and exercising and its good to know you can achieve it when you set out to do it. So to accomplish that I am going to make an effort to write more blog posts on the topic of exercise activities you can do in Toronto.

Making this blog I will admit does take a fair chunk of work. Finding ideas for regular blog posts, researching the topics, finding graphics or making fresh graphics... its all a lot of time sitting at the computer. But thankfully I have lots of exercise equipment in my home office so I regularly get up and exercise whilst churning out these awesome exercise oriented blog posts.

But not everyone has lots of exercise equipment (and footballs) laying around in their office so here is an amusing graphic showing a series of exercises you can do at your desk.

Update, January 8th 2013

Alexa.com has updated Cardio Trek's ranking to:

Cardiotrek.ca is ranked #974,612 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. The site is relatively popular among users in the city of Toronto (where it is ranked #3,449). Visitors to the site spend roughly two minutes on each pageview and a total of five minutes on the site during each visit. About 68% of Cardiotrek.ca's visitors are in Canada, where it has attained a traffic rank of 18,311. Visitors to the site view an average of 3.1 unique pages per day.

Update, January 17th 2013

Cardiotrek.ca is ranked #898,330 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. We estimate that 64% of visitors to the site come from Canada, where it has attained a traffic rank of 17,484, and it is relatively popular among users in the city of Toronto (where it is ranked #3,396). Visitors to Cardiotrek.ca spend roughly two minutes on each pageview and a total of five minutes on the site during each visit. About 10% of visits to the site are referred by search engines.

So already part way to that goal of 2500!

Update, January 28th 2015

So it has been two years since I have updated this post, but here is the good news:

1. As of yesterday Cardiotrek.ca has surpassed 750,000 visitors.
2. The website currently enjoys an average of roughly 1,450 new visitors per day. (43,697 visitors in the last 30 days.)
3. In the 2014 calendar year Cardiotrek.ca had 385,952 visitors. Avrg. 32,162.67 visitors per month or 1060.31 visitors per day.
4.  I no longer track Cardiotrek.ca's ranking in Toronto because Alexa.com has changed what free users can see. According to Alexa the website is now more popular in the USA, likely because of several posts which have gone viral in terms of popularity.
5. The top 3 most viral posts on Cardiotrek.ca are: 10 Ways to Trick Yourself into Burning Extra Calories, Nose Exercises Vs Rhinoplasty , and 20 Ways to Tighten Skin after Weight Loss
6. The most popular service provided by Cardiotrek.ca is archery lessons. Archery lessons in Toronto is currently so popular that it dwarfs all of my other services combined.