Lessons about Fat

It's not secret that I love beachbody.com. I own several of the work out DVDs including Insanity, Turbo Fire Brazil Butt Lift and Power 90. I like that I can work out right in my living room. I recently did a test and I did body pump and then the scultping DVDs with Turbo Fire. Both were very different but the next day, I felt sore in the same areas and ultimately believe that I get the same benefits.

One of the things I like so much about beachbody.com is that I also get news letters that help educate me on various topics. Today, they're talking about fat.

I mentioned in one of my first posts that we measured our body fat for our work competition. I measured at 32.47 with calipers. Here's what I think is interesting: according to what I read, a healthy woman should be between 20 - 25% body fat. Anything over 30% is considered obese. I'm not overlly praising of my body in general but I know that I'm not obese regardless of what that number says. What I like is this article points out accuracy concerns and reminds us that in general the number is not what's important - it's that your number starts going down.

One popular exercise myth is that if we're trying to lose body fat, we should just do lots of cardio and sweat and burn fat, then build muscle later. That's a sort of "lose weight now, get in shape later" approach. There's some truth there. The more we exercise, the more calories we expend and the sooner our bodies tap into our fat stores for energy. But by building up muscle, in addition to doing cardio activity, we can burn a lot more calories, even while we're at rest, and maximize the calorie burn during cardio. Plus, when the stored fat begins to melt off, there will be lean, sexy muscle in its place.

Kendayl and I are focusing on taking it one day at a time. This isn't about 90 days; it's about making life changes. So just as a reminder:

Any activity will go a long way toward reducing body fat percentage. And health professionals advise that even a modest decrease in body fat percentage will have extraordinary health benefits. So even if achieving that ideal "supermodel" weight seems impossible, you can really enhance your quality of life by making a few minor changes in your activity level and diet.