How Much to Exercise Each Day

You may have heard the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (and that breaks down to just 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week). What's important to understand is that this is intended for people who want to maintain the most basic level of fitness — but not for people who want to lose weight. But if you want to drop those pounds, you're going to have to be prepared for a bit more work.

I much prefer the World Health Organization's recommendation of 60 minutes at a time as a starting point for my clients — an hour is ideal to get the most out of your workout and see significant results. Your 60-minute workout sessions should always include a 5-minute warm-up, followed by 50 minutes of your primary cardio or strength-training exercises, followed by at least 5 minutes of cooling down and stretching.

Of course, putting in more time will get you more results — but there's a limit. Excessive intense physical activity releases stress hormones, such as cortisol, into the body. This can actually inhibit weight loss, causing your body to react by storing fat and retaining water out of self-protection. So, to reach your goal, I recommend limiting intense exercise to no more than two hours a session.

Is Eating Small Meals the Key to Weight Loss?

Are six small meals really better for your metabolism, than a healthy three-meals-a-day diet?

It's time to get to the bottom of this popular weight-loss myth. The Truth: The exact opposite is true: If you keep eating small amounts of food throughout the day, you’ll never burn any fat.

This myth is an easy one to buy into, because at face value, it seems like it makes sense. By eating frequent, small meals, you’re continuously stimulating your metabolism, and thus burning more calories, right? WRONG. Here’s why:

By grazing around the clock, you’re preventing your body from burning fat. When you’re constantly eating, you’re consistently releasing insulin, which puts your body into its “absorptive phase.” Basically what this means is that the insulin in your body is storing sugar — and not letting other enzymes in your body release sugar to break down fat. The goal is for your body to be in “postabsorptive phase,” where it uses your energy stores for sustenance, and burns more fat.

Grazing can cause you to lose track of your calories consumed. When you have three, well-balanced meals a day, it’s easy to keep count of all of the calories you’re consuming and it’s much easier to nutritionally balance your meals. Conversely, when you have six, small meals — it becomes harder to count and remember how many calories you’ve eaten in a particular day. It also becomes more difficult to ensure that each time you’re eating, you’re consuming the appropriate combination of macronutrients like healthy proteins, fats, and carbs.

You’re left feeling unsatisfied. Studies have shown that many people don’t feel satiated following a small meal, which can then cause them to overeat later, to make up for it. Psychologically, grazing can leave you wanting more because you never sit down to have a full meal. Instead, I want you to eat every four hours — three meals per day with one snack between lunch and dinner. Eating every four hours stabilizes your blood sugar, optimizes insulin production and manages hunger.

The Bottom Line: Three balanced meals, spaced out every four hours — with a snack between lunch and dinner is the ideal meal plan for weight loss. Your body will use your energy stores and burn more fat!

Be Wary of Artificial Sweeteners

To many people, artificial sweeteners seem like the solution for weight loss. You can get the sweetness of sugar in your diet soda without the calories. What could be bad? Well, as it turns out, a lot of things.

As Americans, we are dropping our per capita consumption of regular soda (great!), but the bad news is we are replacing that soda with diet soda. Artificially sweetened food is not the answer to regular sugar. When we eat regular sugar, our body registers the sweetness and comes to understand that very sweet things contain a lot of calories. Studies suggest that when we trick our bodies by using artificial sweeteners, our internal ability to count calories is thrown way off. Researchers at Purdue University found that when rats who'd grown accustomed to consuming artificially sweetened liquids were given sweet foods high in calories, the rats overate. Some research has even linked diet soda to an elevated risk of metabolic syndrome, though the relationship isn't clear.

As a recovering Diet Coke addict who was formerly known to ingest Splenda by the boatload, my advice is simple: Don't use artificial sweeteners. Your whole way of eating should be consuming food the way nature intended, before it got sent to a chem lab and became indecipherable to our biology.

I want you to cut down on regular sugar as much as possible, but it's okay in very small amounts. If you eat too much sugar, it will make you gain weight, but at least it's natural and not completely screwing up your internal calorie counter. I didn't go cold turkey with sweeteners, and you don't have to either — the key is to use natural, nontoxic products. I recommend crystalline xylitol and stevia. The artificial sweeteners I want you to steer clear of are acesulfame-K (Sunett, Sweet One), aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet'N Low, Sugar Twin), and sucralose (Splenda).

Is It Okay To Skip Meals?

Question: I'm trying to learn to listen to my body and eat only when I am hungry, and sometimes I just don't really want anything to eat. Is it okay to skip meals or to eat fewer than the recommended calories?

Answer: You should NOT skip meals. There are so many adverse effects to skipping meals. Not only does it slow your metabolism but it can also lead to overeating, because when you do eat, you're overly hungry. As for cutting your calories below your recommended allowance, remember this golden rule: Never allow your daily calorie allowance to fall below 1,200 if you are a woman and 1,500 if you are a man. Falling below these daily allowances can do real damage to your metabolism and result in excessive loss of lean muscle tissue. When you dramatically reduce your calories on a consistent basis, it can slow your metabolism or trigger a plateau. Consistent exercise — plus the occasional high-calorie day — will help ward off a plateau. Now, provided you are not going below the 1,200 mark, you CAN drop your daily calories below your usual allowance, but make sure that you are exercising and taking the occasional high-calorie day to help you avoid a plateau.

Do You Know The Right Portion Sizes?

When it comes to losing weight, "calories in/calories out" is the name of the game. Burn more than you consume — it's that simple. But how do you know how many calories you consume in the first place?

Getting an accurate calorie count is easy on days when you can measure all your meals and snacks with the help of a measuring cup and scale. Once you've done all the scooping and weighing, you can get the number by adding up the calories based on your portion sizes. But how do you estimate calories when those tools aren't available?

If you're eating out, here are some useful tips for assessing portion sizes:

• The size of your fist is roughly equal to a 1-cup serving of cereal, wild rice, black beans, and most other grain foods. 
• The size of your thumb is roughly equal to a 1-ounce serving of cheese. 
• The center of your palm of your hand, without fingers, is roughly equal to a 3-ounce serving of fish, chicken, beef, or other meat. 

Easy, right? Give yourself a hand — no pun intended — and start measuring!

The Truth About Cardio Exercise

Oh, you love cardio. I know it. But my program, for the most part, makes straight cardio exercise obsolete. The kind of resistance training I recommend includes cardio intervals and compound movements, which effectively raise your heart rate while burning fat. But as I always say, cardio is weight-loss extra credit — it's a great way to get a workout on days when you're giving your muscles a break from strength training. That's why it's important to get a few cardio basics under your belt, so that you know when to do cardio in relation to your resistance training.

If you plan on doing cardio on the same day as your resistance training, it's better to do it after your weight routine. While it's true that a 5-minute cardio warm-up is necessary before any resistance training, doing intense cardio beforehand will deplete most of your available blood sugar, which you need for those quick bursts of energy that resistance training requires. Also, cardio will fatigue your muscles before you lift a single weight, which will prevent you from maxing out your muscles' potential. On the days when you are resting your muscles and doing cardio alone, the best time of day is absolutely any time. The most important thing is that you do it.

Knowing How Much to Lift

Q: What size dumbbells should I be using — 5-pound, 10-pound? What's a rule of thumb for how much to start with, when to move up, and so on?

A: For weight loss, research has found that lifting between 60 and 80 percent of your 1-rep max (that is, the heaviest amount of weight you can lift for one repetition of an exercise) is the best way to stimulate muscle growth, which is what helps you lose fat. The problem is that most of us don't think about how much weight we need, or go to the trouble of figuring out our 1-rep max for every exercise we do. In fact, I see many gym-goers lifting the same weights week after week — this is just one way to keep your body from changing.

So how do you figure out how much to lift if you don't know your 1-rep max? Here's what I suggest, especially if you're a beginner:

• Choose a weight you can only lift with good form for 12 to 16 reps (which constitutes 1 set). You don't need to go into complete muscle failure, but make sure you're challenging your body. 
• Begin with 1 set of each exercise, slowly working your way up to 2 to 3 sets (adding a set each week). 
• When you've added sets and have a solid foundation (after 6 to 8 weeks), add enough weight so that you can ONLY do 8 to 12 reps. 
• Continue to progress by adding a rep each week until you reach the max reps (no more than 16); then increase your weight again and drop your reps back down to 8 to 12. 

 The important thing to remember when it comes to strength training is that you must give your muscles more weight than they can handle — that's how muscles grow. The challenge of lifting heavier weights is just as much a mental game as a physical one. If you haven't pushed your body's limits in a while, the act of lifting weights alone may be all you can handle. If you're consistent with a basic program and build a solid foundation of strength, you'll be ready for the next step — increasing the amount of weight to push your muscles to their limits. You'll be amazed at the changes in your body!