5 Great Ways to Mitigate Thanksgiving Weight Gain

Thanksgiving can really pack on the calories in a short amount of time, can't it?

Evening out the holiday weight gain can certainly take more time and effort than one might think, but if the right plan and understanding are in place, it can actually take nothing more than a week's worth of determination and fun, challenging exercise in relatively short bouts.
FACT: the Average American gains an entire pound of bodyfat during the holiday season, and doesn't burn it off afterward.

If that figure sounds unbelievable then reflect on these numbers for a moment:

There are only 3500 calories in a pound of fat. So, consuming just 3500 more calories than you normally would, over any given period of time, will equate to an extra pound of weight on your body if you're not countering it with a caloric loss elsewhere.

Alcoholic beverages range from 100 to 1000 calories each.

Missing a 30-minute exercise session can easily mean keeping on an extra 200 to 300 calories that you'd have burned off.

Just one dessert can be as high as 1000 calories, easily.

Given those figures above, gaining an extra pound over the holidays doesn't seem so unlikely, does it?  Then, think about all the sitting, and the missed workouts, during the holidays as well...

So, how do we turn the weight gain around quickly and effectively?  How can we get our bodies back to where they were before all the excess, but without overtraining our joints and heart?

We've put together the top five ways to burn off the extra fat and get back to your pre-Thanksgiving physique!
#5. Walking! Walking burns approximately three to six calories per minute, depending upon your pace, cardiovascular health, and bodyweight. In general, an hourlong walk will burn about 300 calories. Twelve walks like this should burn approximately one pound of fat from your body.
#4. The elliptical machine: At a moderate to high intensity, you can usually expect to burn about 500 calories per hour. Commit to just one hour per day for one week, and you'll burn off about a pounf of bodyfat without any additional effort!
#3. Jogging: While Perfect Personal Training generally doesn't recommend jogging (because of its hard nature against lower-extremity joints), it is noteworthy that just thirty minutes of jogging often burn between 400 and 500 calories (again, dependent upon speed, bodyweight, and individual fitness levels). Around eight of these 30-minute jogs will reduce your bodyfat by about a pound.

#2: Circuit Training is another
great way to burn 5 to 15 calories per minute. And, you'll get the added benefit of increasing muscle mass, which boosts metabolism more than the aforementioned forms of cardiovascular conditioning. It won't take long to burn a pound of bodyfat if your circuit training program is updated to reflect your current levels of muscular and metabolic health.

#1: Caloric control! Here it is, friends: as important as it may be to eat "HEALTHY" foods, the real challenge when it comes to weight management is to consume the same amount of calories each day that you're expending. So, hypothetically, if you get into the routine of burning 2000 and consuming 2250, then you're likely going to gain about two pounds per month while that trend continues. On the other hand, by consuming less than you utilize, you can turn those figures around and create a caloric defecit, even without exercise! The trick is to know how much you're consuming, and stick to a plan for fat loss until you can reach a stage of maintenance.
For more information on Perfect Personal Training's personalized, structured, progressive programs, please visit http://perfectpersonaltraining.com or call 877-698-3648.  Our top degreed and certified wellness coaches and weight management consultants come right to your home, and bring eveything needed for your health & fitness success!!

Top 5 Ways to Make Thanksgiving Healthier

#5.  Take just ten minutes Thanksgiving morning to perform moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise.  Just ten minutes will likely burn approximately 100 calories, and will help your metabolism over the next few hours as well.  (If you can, get the family to go for a brisk walk after dinner also.)

#4.  Use fat-free chicken broth to baste the turkey.  This, alone, will save quite a few unhealthy calories without negatively affecting the taste.

#3.  Drinks lots of water that day!  This will help you to curb hunger and fill up faster.  Aim for, in ounces of water, at least your weight in pounds divided by two.

#2.  Prioritize the healthier, lower-fat options such as white turkey meat, plain vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, and non-fat gravy.

And the number one way to make your Thanksgiving healthier is to simply eat slowly and avoid the high-fat or high-sugar foods. 

Most Americans gain one pound of bodyfat throughout the holidays that they never burn off.  End your meal when you are "satisfied", not "full".

For more health & wellness information, please visit http://perfectpersonaltraining.com or call (877)698-3648.  Gift certificates are easily available in any quantity!

Protein Requirements Defined

The biggest, yet most forgotten, bottom line to achieving a lean, healthy physique is simple: Eat the right amount of protein at the right times of every day. There is no getting around the significance of protein. Protein is necessary for muscle, and muscle = metabolism.

Yes, muscle mass = metabolism!  And protein is essential for muscle mass.

So, what is recommended?  Your protein needs will vary depending upon your exercise's intensity, duration, and frequency, and your Perfect Personal Trainer will be able to help you better craft the specifics.  In general, these three bulletpoints below should give you a good outline regarding your protein needs:

- Get roughly 0.7 - 0.9 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.  Just look at your food labels to determine the numbers of grams of protein that are found in the foods and drinks you're consuming.  If you are very obese, then go as low as 0.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.  Stick to higher numbers (even over 1 gram of protein per pound) if your strength training is taking up more than four hours weekly, and lower if it is minimal (under one hour weekly).

- Divide this daily total by five, and make this new value your requirement per meal, for each of five meals per day. 

- Eat one of these five meals every 3-4 hours.  This way, you have protein coming into your body and building and maintaining muscle tissue throughou the day.

Follow these rules to keep your muscle, battle the normal atrophy that most Americans experience, and elevate your metabolism!  You'll find that in time, you'll have more energy and a healthier physique!

For more, please call us at (877)698-3648 or consult your Perfect Personal Trainer.  Remember, YOU have all the power in the world in creating a lean, strong physique that stays healthy as you age.

Top Five Ways To Keep YOUR Independence

Happy birthday, America!

It is during this time of year that we are reminded of the importance of being a free and independent American.

And, it is during this time of year that we'd like to remind you of how to keep your independence!
We're not talking about political independence, but of maintaining your physical independence.  As you know, Perfect Personal Training is passionate about keeping you free and clear of emergency rooms, overnight hospital stays, and debilitating diseases of the heart, brain, and joints.

So, we've put together our list of five key lifestyle changes that will go a long way in preventing disease and injury.  Please print this list and put it somewhere where it can serve as a daily reminder!

#5.  Keep a Food Journal:  While this may sound like a time-consuming task, just doing this for two or three days each month can give you a great idea of your intake.  It's not just total calories that you should be counting, but your approximate daily carbohydrate intake, your approximate daily protein intake, your water intake, and other important factors.  Of course, a Perfect Personal Trainer can assess your factors and make the appropriate recommendations.

#4.  Know Your Body Composition:  Knowing your weight is not enough!  Only your body composition score can truly assess how "fat" you are, and just how much change is needed, if any, to keep your risk for cardiovascular disease low.  This will also tell us how high (or low) your metabolism is.

#3.  Get Your Cardio In:  Five days per week are recommended for strong cardiovascular health, at a duration of 20-60 minutes per session, and at a "moderate to high" intensity.  This goes for everyone who is in generally good health and who is cleared for exercise by a physician.  This is not just for fat burning, but to keep your circulatory and cardiorespiratory systems functioning ideally.

#2.  Take Care of Your Muscles:  Let's face it - without healthy muscles, we're all in trouble as we age.  Stretch all major muscles safely every day, and perform appropriate strength training for every major muscle at least once or twice per week.  Statistically, even this low amount of strength training, when done properly, will improve metabolism and joint health, while maintaining your level of mobility year and after year.

And, the #1 thing that you should be doing to keep your independence.....

#1.  Load up on anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories!  Yes, more than anything, you need anti-oxidants to fight off free radicals.  Free radicals are worse than ever now, with environmental issues and other factors contributing regularly to our poorer health.  Fight them off by getting high amounts of anti-oxidants through fruits and vegetables, green teas, herbs, and vitamins.  And, by adhering to a diet that is high in anti-inflammatory foods, you will reduce your risk even further.  These are easy and very important components to keeping your body healthy, while minimizing risk for cancer and chronic disease.
Stay independent, America!  Your decisions have the ability to make or break your health, happiness, and long-term physical independence.  Make the right ones, and you'll make your "future self" a healthy one.

GREAT DEAL!
** Buy One, Get One Free deals on herbs, vitamins, and supplements **

Conquering Metabolism This Summer -- Without the Gym!

Losing Weight & Feeling Great!

Perhaps you have heard the buzzword "metabolism" over and over again, but never quite understood how to improve it, or what it really is.  Or, perhaps you've the usual approaches, but your efforts never really seemed to create the change that you needed to create energetic, healthy days.

"Metabolism" is a word that represents all the caloric reactions happening in the body. This includes burning calories for energy and movement, building lean tissue, immune system functions, brain activity, digestion, and more.

Your metabolism is unique to you: Roughly 60-70% of the calories burned in a day come from the normal daily reactions in your body that are necessary just to keep you alive. Your heart beating, your kidneys clearing waste from your blood, your brain functioning, the digestion of food, and other factors all contribute to that 60-70% -- even while you sleep!

Roughly 10-20% of calories burned are done so through normal daily activity. Walking around the office, doing the dishes, cooking, etc burn those 10-20%.

So, where do the remaining 10-30% of burned calories come from?  Those calories are burned from additional physical movement -- cardiovascular or anaerobic exercise.

If you're not getting these types of exercise in your day-to-routine, then you're missing a big opportunity for longer life and better health, because you're not burning any additional calories. That 10-30% above becomes zero, and your daily caloric expenditure is going to come from those calories burned from just being alive and maintaining normal daily activities. It is important to understand that the number of calories you burn each day is a major factor in maintaining weight and/or weight loss.

Are you ready for the good news?

Following these suggestions, below, will cause additional caloric deficit, but they will also lead to an increase in calories burned throughout the rest of the day... Yes, those calories burned "just to keep you alive" suddenly increase!  It now costs your body more calories each day just to live, all because you did any or all of the following:

• 2-3 times per week of appropriate strength training (100+ additional calories burned)
• 3-5 days a week of 20-60 minutes of appropriate cardiovascular exercising (100+ additional calories burned)
• Nutritionally packed meals/snacks   (5-10% additional calories burned)

Further, your age and genetic factors generally don't have to weigh as heavily into your metabolism as you might think.  While these factors can certainly play a role against you, lifestyle far outweighs the effects age and genetic heritage.  For example, people tend to lose muscle mass as they age, and that, in turn, reduces metabolism.  But, this isn't a necessary function of aging.  By sustaining muscle mass through healthy diet, proper exercise, and supplementation, a person can maintain muscle mass (lean tissue) through the aging process, and thereby minimize the effects of age working against metabolic factors.

Now, here is the bad news:  Skipping meals or cutting calories too low will lower your metabolism tremendously. This is generally the cause of weight loss plateaus. For example, a dieter loses weight quickly by eating very little -- usually fewer than 1200 calories daily. Then, after a few weeks of this, the breakdown of muscle and bone density has taken its toll on a dieter's metabolism, and the body weight starts to return. 

So, this is metabolism in a nutshell -- a crash course on the body weight basics.  But, there are lot more specifics that will be pertinent to you, and as with any science, the "devil is in the details".  If you aren't already, then we strongly suggest beginning regular Wellness with a Perfect Personal Trainer nutritionist and weight management expert.  Not only will your metabolism greatly improve (and stay that way), but your joints, bones, and heart will be tremendously healthier, also. 


And, with Fathers' Day coming up, we'd like to recommend a gift certificate for Dear Old Dad.  You can purchase in any quantity of sessions, and a free fitness assessment and consultation always starts things off - giving Dad the chance to meet with a trainer before using any of his gift certificate.  To make an easy purchase, just click here:  http://perfectpersonaltraining.com/gift_certificates/index.php


Questions or concerns about health and wellness with Perfect Personal Training?  Just call us at (877)698-3648 between 8am and 8pm Eastern Time during the week.  Every day, we help our clients achieve physical and mental success through safe, scientific, and well-balanced exercise.  Our clients love their results!

Do You Burn As Much Fat with Two Small Workouts As One Big One?

Happy Memorial Day, readers!

Today's question is a bit of a controversial one amongst dieters and those exercising for fat loss.  This question is, will a person burn the same amount of body fat by doing two small workouts instead of one big one?  Let's look at an example, below:

John Doe normally does 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day.  He is considering splitting this into two 30 minute workouts.  Will John burn the same amount of fat this way?

The answer?  John will  likely burn about the same number of calories in both scenarios.  And, by splitting the workout into two smaller workouts, he will get added health benefits, improved post-exercise metabolic factors, and will generally reduce feelings of hunger more effectively than with his current hourlong exercise session.  However, there is a big downside...

After roughly 20-30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at the appropriate intensity for fat loss, a person starts to burn a higher percentage of calories from stored fat.  You see, when you train your cardiovascular energy system, you don't burn every calorie from stored fat.  A bout that burns 1000 calories will not burn all 1000 calories from fat, but after 20-30 minutes, that percentage of calories burned from fat vs those burned from other sources will be higher and higher.  The story gets better:  After about 45 or 50 minutes, we'll see an even higher percentage of calories burned being stored from fat, and fewer and fewer from stored glycogen.

So, what does this mean for John Doe?  Absolute, maximum fat calories will be more greatly burned in the longer sweat-session than in the two shorter sessions, combined.  If John's sole aim is to burn as much body fat as possible, then he should stick to his current hourlong exercise session.  But, if John is bored with his routine and seeking a change that will still burn a great number of calories (and, generally, a decent percentage of those calories from stored fat), then splitting up his workout may be a good idea to avoid boredom and eventual burnout.  And again, the health benefits and metabolic benefits are often improved by exercising more frequently.

Do you have a question for an exercise physiologist from Perfect Personal Training?  We love to help!  Just post a comment below or call 877-698-3648 with your question, and we'll give you an in-depth and well-researched answer.  For more continued and personalized advice, we recommend working with a degreed and top-certified Perfect Personal Trainer.  Thank you for reading, and have a great new week!

* The Perfect Fathers' Day gift:  In-Home Exercise & Nutrition  *

Five Quick & Easy Fitness Opportunities You're Missing Out On

If achieving greater preventive health and fitness was as easy as a few minutes per day, then wouldn't you take those few extra minutes to improve yourself and reduce risk for debilitating disease?

Below are five quick and easy ways to make yourself healthier and more energetic, with a very small time commitment:

#5.  Perform 30-60 seconds of a front plank exercise.

This exercise is rarely contraindicated for those of normalized blood pressure and spinal health, making it a generally safe, effective method of improving core muscles, balance, and posture.  Please breathe regularly while you hold this position, and be sure to check with your physician to be certain that there are no health concerns regarding this or any other exercise.

#4.  Divide your bodyweight (in lbs) by two.  This number is, roughly, your recommended amount of daily water intake (in ounces).  On days of heavy sweating, high juice or tea intake, or prolonged cardiovascular or strength training, then this number should be much higher.

#3.  Stretch your major muscles any time that you can -- during phone calls, television time, or whenever you find yourself available to perform  some stretching.  Twenty seconds or longer is usually sufficient for improving joint and muscular health and flexibility.  This may even help you to prevent muscle aches and cramps, and to sleep more soundly.

#2.  Consume green teas, green vegetables, beans, and other high-anti-oxidant foods and drinks.  Just adding one more serving to each day can make a tremendous difference in your health and wellness.

And the #1 easy fitness opportunity to aim for each day:  Devote more time to cardiovascular training!  Just 20 minutes per day is often sufficient for greatly reducing risks for heart failure, stroke, and heart attack.  If twenty minutes per day isn't attainable for you, then keep in mind that even five or six minutes each day is helpful at improving long-term cardiac function, and will burn roughly forty to eighty calories for most people.

There you have it!  As always, we recommend consulting a top-certified and degreed Perfect Personal Trainer for specific, personalized exercise science and nutrition.  Have a great Easter weekend!