Friday, November 20, 2009

Two simple and effective tips to get you Looking Hot for the Holidays!

Hey Clients, Friends and Family.

Here are your next two tips to get you looking and feeling your best for the holidays.

Exercise Tip: It's all about the effort!
So today one of our clients was mentioning to me how much she loved a certain Elliptical trainer over a different model. I asked her what was the main difference. She said she really loved working out on her favorite machine because it's so much easier, hardly feels like she's working out at all and yet, she burns the most calories on that machine. Do you see the problem here?!

Let me explain to you how caloric expenditure is calculated on cardio machines. Each manufacturer uses a mathematical algorithm to estimate calories burned based on a few variables such as duration and intensity. However there are no Cardio machine police! So manufacturers are free to be as generous as they want with these formulas. And of course, most understand that if their machine reports a higher caloric expenditure, more people will want to use it and therefore they will sell more units.

Bottom line - if a particular machine or exercise feels harder, it is harder. And therefore if you are working harder, you are burning more energy and calories and that translates into more fat burned!

Remember this - if you are going easier, you are going to have to go longer. And if you are going harder, you can go shorter to burn equivalent calories. So mix it up people and train your entire system!

Nutrition Tip: First thing in the morning, before you put any food in your mouth, drink at least 8-16 ounces of cool, refreshing water. Flush out your system and start your day off on the right foot!

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

1 comment:

  1. Generally, this is true. But some machines "fit" one person better than another. If a machine is too big or too small- especially elliptical or step trainers, the feeling of effort could be much different. The angle and height of most stairmasters are set for the average man. Therefore, women may have too much strain on backs particularly and thus hate using that machine. Increased perceived exertion may actually be increased strain.

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