The Weight Loss Balancing Act

When it comes to weight loss, the combination of nutrition, strength training and cardio exercise is the best combination for your members.

A friend of mine who often consults with me on fitness related topics asked me a question that intrigued me the other day: ‘Isn’t nutrition the most important factor to losing weight? In fact, this was not the first time someone had asked me this question.

First, I think it would be a good idea to point out that what people are usually looking to achieve is fat reduction and not weight loss. You could be 130 pounds and look completely out of shape while someone who is 200 pounds and has a significantly lower body fat percentage will have a much leaner physique and a healthier body composition. This stated, let’s move on to what I call the ‘Pyramid’ of Fitness. The Pyramid consists of an optimal combination of three key factors each dependent on the other to lose fat and gain lean muscle mass; in short, they will contribute in your search for the perfect body. Theoretically speaking, the body’s use of energy (calories) will determine your body composition (i.e. fat percentage). In order to achieve results in the most efficient way, you need to manipulate the energy that goes in and out of your body. Thus, there are three perspectives to consider: regulating the energy that goes into your body – Nutrition; increasing the amount of energy burned-Cardiovascular Exercise; and finally, developing the body’s potential to use that energy-Muscular developing and Muscular Endurance (resistance training). Why do I call this the Pyramid? In a two-dimensional world, a Pyramid has three sides and three corners. Each side is dependent on the other. Take one away and it is no longer a Pyramid. Similarly for the Fitness Pyramid, Nutrition is dependent on the other two factors. Imagine you are on a healthy balanced diet of wholesome foods and the energy you consume is 2000 calories a day. Since you do not exercise, we will assume that your body’s basal metabolic rate, the rate at which your body expends energy at rest or sleep, is 1500 calories. This means that you accumulate 500 kcal every day minus your daily activity. Now, let’s add the Resistance Training factor and assume that you are increasing your body’s potential energy use to 1700 kcal not to mention the calories you are burning while weight training (assuming another 200 kcal). Already, you decreased the energy you accumulate from 500 kcal per day to 100 kcal and your body’s energy demands are still increasing. Finally, let’s add the cardiovascular exercise factor by assuming an expenditure of 300 kcal on a treadmill or practicing one of your favorite sports. Do you realize that you are now losing 200 kcal every day?

Contrary to what you may believe, gaining weight is possible in this type of regime because muscle weighs more than fat. For beginners, you will probably notice some weight gain at the beginning of a workout cycle because of the dramatic increase in lean muscle mass, but this will later decrease as your body settles into its new frame. The important thing is the improvement of your body composition and health.

To sum it all up, there is no doubt that Nutrition is an important factor to losing fat, however, combining both Resistance Training and Cardiovascular Exercise will dramatically increase your body’s potential to burn the energy that is being stored. Some will say that Nutrition contributes to at least 50% of your weight objectives, but I believe that the balance of factors in the Pyramid will exponentially increase the effects of any individual element. Therefore, each factor is worth 100% in my books.

Alec Baltadjian is the Marketing Director of Atlantis Strength Equipment. He can be contacted at 877.454.2285 extension 250 or by email at abaltadjian@atlantis-fit.com.