The
8 Deadly Pitfalls of Exercising and Eating Right
by Phil Kaplan
We all know the secret to health,
fitness, and longevity. It isn't magic brought back from the
ancient tribesmen of Peru. It isn't an incredible new invention
discovered by a mad genius trying to splice DNA. It isn't
even a pill that magically makes fat go away while you sit
on the couch and watch television. The secret, as we're all
aware, is to exercise and "eat right," and in that lies the
mystery.
The question is, if we all know
that, if the secret is out . . . why don't we all "do" that?
That's only the first question of many that arise. Why, while
the "eat right and exercise" idea works for so many, does
it appear to fail so many others? Why might your friend, next-door
neighbor, or cousin workout with you and achieve much more
dramatic results than you do?
Despite people's willingness to
blame themselves, to blame their genetics, or to blame their
hectic schedules, in every case, when fitness or weight loss
failure manifests, it's the result of some flawed information
destroying achievement potential. Yes, it's the result of
a pitfall swallowing up the fitness hopes of somebody with
good intentions who is unfortunately plagued by misguided
direction.
There are eight primary pitfalls,
common mistakes people make when attempting to find the balance
between eating right and exercising, and with recognition
and elimination of these mistakes, you'll find yourself in
total control. I'm calling the eight pitfalls "the 8 Deadly
Pitfalls," not because they endanger your life, but because
any one is enough to completely kill the potential for desired
results. They are deadly to your potential to improve.
Most of the pitfalls involve actions
(or a lack of action) that neglect the importance of the synergistic
relationship between eating supportively, exercising aerobically
in moderation, and challenging muscle. All three elements
are vital if the goal is a long-term positive physical change.
Once you learn to apply this vital synergy in a manner that
fits comfortably into your life, you'll find the payoff for
the time you invest in exercise to be significant and extremely
rewarding. Let's get on to the pitfalls. With all eight packed
tightly into your brain, fitness failure will no longer be
an option!
Pitfall #1: Consuming too much
sugar (or refined carbohydrates) on a fat loss program
For years people have learned to
shop for food by responding to buying signals listed in large
print on the front of food labels. The words "fat free" have
compelled Americans to feast on cookies, cakes, ice creams,
and pastries and America grew fatter. The number one ingredient
in cookies, cakes, ice creams, and pastries, is sugar and
regular sugar ingestion is an excellent way to sabotage attempts
at fat reduction. If you understand how your body reacts to
simple sugar ingestion, it becomes relatively simple to put
a "sweet tooth" to rest.
When you put a simple sugar in
your digestive tract, even if it's in a fat free cookie, all
of that sugar gets absorbed into the bloodstream at once.
For that moment, you have high blood sugar. Assuming the pancreas
is functioning well, it responds to the blood sugar spike
by beginning to produce more insulin. There is a sensitive
balance between the pancreas' production of two hormones,
insulin and glucagon, thus, when you are forced to up insulin
production, your pancreas has no choice but to back off on
its production of glucagon. Insulin is a "storage hormone"
as it transports sugars through the wall of the digestive
tract and into the muscles and the liver. Glucagon is a "release
hormone" and allows you to mobilize stored fat. When you eat
a simple sugar and glucagon production declines, you are crippling
your fat burning ability.
The refined carbohydrates, such
as foods made with bleached and refined flour, are not much
better. Normally your body does a fair amount of calorie burning
work to digest complex carbs, but if those carbs have been
bleached and processed, it's sort of like a machine did much
of the work your body was going to do. The process also robs
grains of vital micronutrients making them "empty calories"
that, in addition to spiking blood sugar, are easily converted
into triglycerides and stored as fat.
Pitfall #2: Failing to provide
adequate challenge to the working muscles
 In
every health club there are what I've learned to call the
"chatters." These are men and women who pick up some very
light dumbbells and carry on in depth conversations while
they use gravity and momentum to go through the motions of
propelling the weights up and down. Positive physical change
is the result of the body's propensity for adaptation and
the willingness to continue to find a new stimulus to provide
progressive challenge. In other words, if your body is fully
capable of handling any given workload, you're not going to
see progress.
If you perform 10 repetitions of
curls, for example, every single day with 15 pounds, and you
are absolutely certain you're going to get 10 reps without
breaking a sweat, that set will do little to stimulate metabolic
or strength improvements. Conversely, if you start with 15-pound
dumbbells and they are initially challenging, and as the workload
becomes easier you gradually increase the poundages, you can
facilitate quite impressive change.
Pitfall #3: Neglecting protein
intake
 Healthy
foods are certainly important to consume on any fitness program,
but there's a distinctive difference between "eating healthy
foods," and "eating in a manner that's going to help you develop
a lean body." When most people think of healthy foods they
think of fruits and vegetables. Next they'll think of grains.
While vegetable based foods certainly have their place, there
must also be a concern for adequate intake of protein. The
question of "how many grams of protein do we need" has been
asked for decades without anyone coming up with a clearly
definitive answer. The reason, I believe, the answer has not
emerged, is . . . there isn't any answer! We are all individual
and in that we have individual metabolisms, lifestyles, and
body compositions. A pro football player with 180 pounds of
lean body mass would probably need far higher protein intake
to preserve muscle tissue than someone with half his weight.
What happens if you don't take
in enough protein? Well, your body may have greater need for
amino acids than is being supplied by your diet. In the absence
of sufficient dietary protein, it can turn to muscle mass,
begin catabolizing or breaking down muscle tissue to free
up stored amino acids. This loss of muscle, while it may reflect
as pounds lost on the scale, is a detriment to metabolism
and in the long run can act to program the body to become
more efficient at storing fat.
Pitfall #4: Failing to eat frequently
enough
The typical American diet, small
breakfast, moderate lunch, large dinner, is more a result
of habit than it is the result of careful evaluation of human
performance and nutritional need. Metabolism is actually the
rate at which you convert nutrients into fuel, or in plain
English, the speed with which your body burns through food.
Five hours between meals is enough to send blood sugar plummeting
and to compromise the muscle's capacity to store and access
fuel. Optimally, if the goal is a lean toned body, you'd try
to get to a "meal" every 3 - 3 ½ hours.
Pitfall #5: Overtraining
Overtraining simply means exercising
beyond the body's recuperation limits. I meet two primary
types of overtrainers. There are the over-ambitious novices
who want quick results and attempt to emulate the routines
performed by individuals with years of muscle stimulating
exercise under their belts. The second type are the overly
enthusiastic who head "back to the gym" to start "working
out again," not recognizing their bodies are not quite the
same as they were back in the day.
The secret to achieving leanness
and muscularity involves challenging the body adequately,
but taking it past the point of diminishing returns can move
you further away from your goals. Train beyond your body's
ability to meet fuel demand through its preferred sources
of fuel, and your training might actually lead to a breakdown
of muscle tissue, the complete opposite of what most people
want. Overtraining leads to a loss of motivation, to irritability,
to insomnia, to immune system compromises, and in many cases
to injury. Exercise doesn't have to be an overwhelming all-consuming
effort. If you're not an advanced bodybuilder or fitness competitor,
you don't need to pile the massive weights on the leg press
machine for endless sets, nor do you need to crank out hundreds
of repetitions of bench presses. You simply have to stimulate
muscle, feed the body, and allow all the systems of the body
to rest and recuperate.
Pitfall #6: Believing daily activity
"counts" as exercise
Sure, I know women would love it
if shopping burned enough calories to keep them fit, and men
would wish for the act of driving the golf cart becoming a
great tummy trimmer, but that isn't reality. If you "shop"
on a daily basis, or play golf nearly every day, the process
of adaptation has already taken place. If you are very active
at work, that's fantastic, but it doesn't guarantee consistent
improvement. When the body adapts to the demand, progress
is guaranteed to cease. It's important, regardless of what
you do in the course of a day, to set aside some time to challenge
the muscles against progressive resistance.
That doesn't mean back off on your
activity. Of course physical activity will serve you well,
but don't believe it's a substitute for focused exercise sessions
devoted solely to improvements in body composition and in
cardio respiratory function.
Pitfall #7: Failing to ingest
calories sufficient to maintain metabolism and supply fuel
for activity
A 150 pound man, at rest for a
24-hour period, would burn approximately 1500 calories just
to keep his brain functioning, his heart beating, and his
internal organs pursuing life-sustaining metabolic processes.
Add in to the equation movement, exercise, stress, and work
and of course caloric requirements further increase. The old
and misleading adage, "eat less to weigh less," has sent dieters
flocking toward calorie deprivation. The challenge lies in
keeping energy stores full and keeping metabolism stoked when
you're barely taking in enough calories to sustain function
at rest. Once you come to understand that eating supportively,
eating "thermic" (calorie burning) meals frequently throughout
the day, can actually boost metabolism, can make the body
more efficient at burning through food and releasing fat,
and can provide fuel to keep energy levels at a consistent
high, you'll quickly develop some new eating habits. Ideally
you'll divide your daily calories into six balanced meals
allowing for optimal use of nutrients and a continuous stimulation
of metabolic activity.
Pitfall #8: Failing to schedule
down time
Think of exercise as the stimulus
that causes your body to make positive adaptations . . . as
you rest. By "rest," I'm not only referring to sleep, although
that should certainly be adequate if you want to see results.
I'm also referring to the pursuit of a relaxing hobby, days
off from work, visiting a park or a beach, or sitting at home
enjoying some music. There is a crucial balance between stress
and recovery, and while positive stress (exercise) properly
applied can lead to the body making exceptional progress,
it will only do so if there is adequate "down time." It might
be helpful to realize that there are opposing forces at work,
and if the balance isn't quite right, the results can be perilous.
Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and has
been referred to as the "stress hormone." During periods of
elevated stress, cortisol levels are increased. Cortisol is
a catabolic hormone, which means it allows the body to cannibalize
its own tissue. It does have an important purpose. The gradual
breakdown of tissue allows you to continuously build new,
healthy cells. Cortisol also makes certain that if the body's
energy needs suddenly go up due to an extreme stress, or if
due to trauma eating is a challenge, there are plenty of amino
acids floating around to be converted into glucose and used
as fuel. We access those amino acids in a stress-induced state
by breaking down muscle. There are other hormones that are
more geared toward enhancing positive response. Growth hormone
has received much attention lately and people have come to
believe it's a drug. It isn't a drug, but a human hormone
that is produced by the pituitary gland and it plays a vital
role in anabolism (tissue building) and protein synthesis
as well as in keeping metabolic processes at optimal levels
of performance. Growth hormone production is increased when
you rest, and further increased when you enter deep sleep.
Without adequate rest and sleep a cortisol-dominant environment
can prevent you from seeing the results you're working so
hard to achieve.
With the eight pitfalls exposed,
the path to your ultimate success should be clear. Eat supportive
meals frequently, exercise enough to provide challenge, maintain
some regular aerobic activity, and schedule in relaxation
and recuperation time, and reshaping your body becomes a simple
task.
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