Keeping a food log can be one of the most useful tools to tracking your success or helping you detect where you can make changes so you can reach your fitness goals faster. Just like your workouts need constant adjustments and analyzing so does your food intake.  Most of us have an idea of what we eat every day; however studies have shown that a very high percentage of people who actually log their intake are very surprised by the total calories and types of food they are actually putting into their body.  A research conducted on 1,685 middle-aged men and women for six months, proved that people who maintained a food diary everyday could lose almost twice the weight when compared to people who did not maintain the diary.  This is where it is important to know what you are taking in because in order to reach a goal whether it be body fat loss or muscle gain, you need to have your macro-nutrients in order with the proper amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats as well as create a small calorie surplus or deficit to what your activity is per day/week.  The only way to know you are actually at a deficit or surplus (depending on your goal) is to have an exact log where you can not only calculate the total calories for the day but more importantly over the course of an entire week.

For the novice just wanting to lose weight and tone up the highlight will be on portion sizes and calories.  The most beneficial point here is just being able have a visual record of what and how much you are eating and drinking because you can’t create a plan without knowing your starting point. It might be easy to eat an extra piece of candy or chocolate here and there and think nothing of it, but when you see 4-5 pieces per day that add up to more than 300 calories, now that is a reality check!  Especially since over the course of a week a surplus like this adds up to over a half of a pound weight gain.

For the Advanced athlete, most likely you already have your portion sizes and calories under control or you have done a food log or diary enough times to know just by looking at the “portion size’ of something, how many calories you are eating and what of those calories are considered protein, carbohydrate ,etc.  For the advanced athlete your goal will be fine tuning the details as your body has some muscle maturity and it only takes small adjustments to move the direction you want to go.  Once the advanced athlete has a food diary under control they can manipulate their Protein, carbohydrate, and fat levels throughout the year until they find exactly what works for them.  After that it is just a matter of putting the plan into action and logging the results that they have attained, knowing what to use and not use in the future as possible combinations.

Regardless of your fitness level it is interesting to give yourself a reality check and truly know what you are putting into your body so you can plan properly.

3 rules you need to follow when tracking your food intake are

1)    Always put down exact measurements—a food scale is a necessity when logging your intake not only so you get the #’s right, but more importantly so you know for next time what that portion size looks like.  After a few weeks you should be able to look at a piece of chicken and know if it is 4 or 6 ounces.

2)    Always put down your extra liquid calories—one of the big gut busters is soda!  Those calories add up fast.  Alcohol is important too because even if there is not any carbs there are still calories, 7 calories per gram of alcohol…..this is where the weekend warriors out there tend to get sabotaged.

3)    Always tally up your totals for the end of the week and month.  The data is no good unless you are using it to make changes and see where you did well and where you need to try harder.

A common mistake to note is when eating out.  Most of us do not realize the amount of calories that are put in the sauces on the foods we eat so we use our best guess.  Try using calorie-counter.com to find the restaurant you ate at to get the proper nutrition.  If you cannot find a particular restaurant, find a similar dish at another restaurant to get the best guess possible.

Once you are on your way to tracking and weighing your food, you will get very efficient at it and be able to analyze it better and better.  Some things to look out for are where you made mistakes on cheating and why that happened.  Maybe next time you can stop it before it happens because you know that it might be coming.  Another advantage to the food log is watching your progress with your body composition results; have your body fat percentage checked in the gym you work out in or from a personal trainer.  Make adjustments on calories and macro nutrients based off of the direction you are going and how fast you are getting there.

Whether advanced or a beginner, using a food log is going to be a way of life for those who want serious results.  The beginner will use it to see what they are currently doing and what they need to change to get to their goal and the advanced will use it to follow patterns that worked and avoid patterns that didn’t work over the years.  Either way with a food log you are putting yourself on the right path to progress day after day and week after week.  Remember without it you are not failing to plan, but rather you are planning to fail.

So you’ve found your mojo in the gym and your focus and intensity are great during your workouts, but you just can’t seem to meet your goals. Sound familiar? The majority of your workout gains will be seen only when your diet is on point. So why is it so hard for us to stick to it? Well, for one reason we may be hardwired for it. Scientists have been researching human brain function as it relates to eating and the feeling of satisfaction and excitement when visually seeing and eating foods that are high in fat and sugar. Some people truly lack the ability to feel satiated or their brains aren’t registering that they have satisfied their “craving” once they taste the food. Sometimes, eating is purely habitual or serves as an emotional crutch. Any way you look at it, overeating or not eating the right kinds of foods will surely sabotage your workout efforts. Let’s take a look at the most common reasons people are unable to reach their goal weights:

1. Emotions: Eating when you’re depressed, celebrating with food, or eating to fill a void or to create a distraction are all common reasons people overeat. Before you overindulge, evaulate if you are truly feeling hungry or if you may be experiencing a stressful situation. Wait 15 minutes before you give into your emotional craving bc that’s how long it takes for a craving to subside. Work out, read a book or meet with friends to help you refocus yourself.

2. Habits: Whether self created or handed down from our family, habits can be hard to break. “Clean your plate” or “Have some ice cream, it’ll make it stop hurting” are phrases you might have heard growing up. While our parents thought they were instilling good values or helping us feel better by using food as a band-aid or reward, they created an association with food. Now that we are adults, we have to take charge and control our relationship with food. It takes 30 days to create a new habit. Commit to 30 days of exchanging your nightly ice cream with fruit or protein shake.

3. Overeating: in this super-sized society we are consuming almost twice as much food as our parents did. Just because you have a full plate in front of you doesn’t mean that you are required to eat everything on it. Familiarize yourself with serving sizes and ask for a to go box when you get your meal and place half of your food in it before you begin eating. You’ll be surprised that you can re-train your stomach to feel full on smaller portions. Eating every 3 hours will also help keep you from becoming so hungry that you overeat at one meal.

Chelsea Peitz

This workout is great when you are short on time and want to get a good weight training workout and cardio workout together.

Great for helping you get that summer beach body.

Get a barbell and use a weight that you could curl about 10 times.  Most of my clients will do about anywhere from 40lbs to 65lbs for example.

Here is how it looks:

You will constantly be moving the bar into different positions for each exercise, but all the exercises are back to back and they are all 10 reps for a total of 10 sets.  This means you will do a total of 100 reps when you are done with 1 set.

10 Squats (with bar on back)

10 Good mornings (with bar on back)

10 Stiff leg deadlifts (with bar in front)

10 Bent over Rows (with bar in front)

10 Shoulder presses (with bar by chest)

10 Lunges (with bar on back) each side

10 Jump squats (with bar on back)

10 Bicep curls (with bar in front, underhand grip)

10 Core pushups (with hands on bar)

10 Sumo jump squats (with bar on back)

Do these all back to back for a total of 100 reps and then rest 2-3 minutes and repeat 2 more times.

As always, please have a trainer at Fuzion watch your form first so that you are doing the exercises in a safe manner.

Brian Peitz

TOO MUCH CARDIO AND NOT ENOUGH RESISTANCE TRAINING

As fitness and health trainers we hear it and see it everyday, people that do a ton of cardio and little to no strength training.  Almost 100% of the time it results in no physical change in your body image, often it actually results in weight gain because the cardio burns your muscle away which slows down your normal metabolism.

If you fall in one of these categories below, keep reading to find out how to really make a change in body image and health.

1.  I don’t need to work out, I walk every day.

2.  I hike the mountain so my legs are in great shape.

3.  I do aerobics or other group classes

4.  I am going to walk/run/bike outdoors until I get in shape and then add the weights.

It is a scientific FACT that has been proven over and over again that the best way to increase your metabolism and burn the most amounts of calories all day long is to do 2-3 days per week of resistance training. PERIOD!

Cardiovascular exercise alone is GREAT for your heart; however it does not give you the full benefit if not combined with resistance training.  Actually, what we see most often is weight gain, because of the increased energy expenditure causes someone to eat more as they are hungrier.  Also, if you are not building lean muscle to help support your metabolism, you are just “robbing peter to pay Paul” with your body.  Yes, you will feel better and Yes, its good for your cardiovascular system, but why not get the most bang for you buck and combine it with your strength training??  Research has shown that by combining the two you will get 80% better results and well as make your bones stronger while you age!!

1 lb of muscle burns about 30 calories per hour, but 1 lb of fat only burns 3 calories.

Think about it, how many calories would you prefer to burn??

Brian Peitz

Fuzion Fitness

This is not as difficult as it sounds and works great.  We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and with this plan it will be the biggest meal of the day.  The way this works is you start your metabolic machine right away with the proper fuel and then taper off throughout the day allowing yourself to burn the food as fuel so that you have a low chance of storing the food as body fat late at night.  Start your first meal with the biggest meal and then make each meal after that a little smaller until you reach your late night snack which should consist of all protein and healthy fats.

Here is a sample for a 1200 calorie diet…..

Breakfast:   350 calores

Lunch:         300 calories

Snack:        250 calories

Dinner:       200 calories

Snack:        100 calories

This is one example, and can be done with any calorie goal, whether yours is 2000/day or 1200/day.  Be sure to get a good combination of protein, carbs, and healthy fats for the first 4 meals.  Then make