Shed the Winter Weight

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OK, it’s time.

You’ve been living a bit of a sedentary lifestyle, logging couch time and hibernating the winter away. Maybe you’ve been playing a little rec league hockey or doing some walking, but since you treated yourself to that snowblower last year, shoveling wasn’t part of the routine this year. Bottom line: you’ve packed on a few pounds over the winter and softened up a bit, and you’ve decided that you want to lose some weight and chisel up a bit in time for, say, Canada Day. Well, it’ll take some work, but if you do it smart, probably not as much as you might think.

To do this, you’re going to have to mount a three-pronged attack that will inclutde diet, weights and cardio.

Don’t bother with the fad diets, and don’t subscribe to the fallacy that if you simply eat less and exercise more, you’re good to go, because if you go down either of those roads, sooner or later, you’re likely to end up fatter.

Instead, think clean. Mary Ann Masesar, BN, a fitness nurse at Higher Level Fitness, says forget about high-cal versus low-cal, fat versus low or no fat; you want to be eating what she calls “clean foods.” That means avoiding processed foods, eating more whole foods and finding ways to minimize your carbs and excess sugar–and don’t skip meals. “Eat frequently–three meals and two snacks per day so your body doesn’t go into starvation mode and store everything for later–and have foods that are clean and whole and process-free,” she explains. “You want to be consuming lots of proteins, which include tuna, eggs, chicken and lean beef meats. You also want to be avoiding so-called ‘white foods’ (which are just empty refined calories, like white bread, white rice and the like).”

Generally, going clean is going to help you lose weight all by itself, but about that protein intake: a good rule of thumb is one gram per day for every pound of body weight. “If you want to have more muscle tone,” says Masesar, “the biggest thing is to pay attention to protein so that your body is using that for fuel rather than carbs.” 

If the thought of figuring out how to get 170 grams or so of protein seems daunting, Masesar notes that protein supplements can help, and suggests a good whey isolate protein. “There are different types of protein blends out there,” she warns, “and the most important thing to pay attention to on the label is how much sugar and fillers a whey supplement might contain.”

On the subject of supplements, Masesar recommends taking a good multivitamin every day, and an Omega 3 supplement is not a bad idea either, to stoke your metabolism if you don’t eat much fish. Just remember, a supplement is just that, so don’t let it be a substitute for eating properly. 

Of course, diet (and protein) alone is not going to get you that beach body. But neither, necessarily, is a gym membership, or even a home gym.

“Your body is your gem,” notes Masesar, “so you don’t want to have any excuses to not work out. Your own motivation will give you the best results most quickly; you can use anything or nothing. The best results will come from your consistency in doing it. If you give yourself 20 to 30 minutes each day, and by developing a program that incorporates the full body, you’ll be able to achieve your results. If you use your body weight and enough intensity, you can create the same level of gain.” 

You can’t have a beach body with flaccid abs, and what you want to pay attention to there is deep abdominal exercises–balance and core–so when you are considering exercises, “you’ll want to incorporate that core; a great one is kettle bell swings, and another is the squat press,” says Masesar, “where you have to engage your core–not only using your abs, but also your legs, shoulders and arms to quickly burn a lot of calories.”

At first blush, all of this can seem like a lot of work, especially if you’ve been riding that couch and eating bon-bons for a long time, so here comes some good news: on top of the diet and resistance exercise, you don’t necessarily need to find another hour every day to do cardio. “If you incorporate high-intensity cardio–where every few minutes, you are going at a rate that makes you short of breath, alternating that with short periods of less intense activity–20 minutes of that type of cardio would suffice to burn enough calories to move you consistently into a fat-burning mode,” explains Masesar.

Even better, you might even be able to kill two birds with your weight resistance routine so that you could–theoretically, and if you’re being honest with yourself–forego a separate cardio workout altogether. Granted, it depends on the individual and how much activity you get in a typical day. “You want to do body-weight exercises that bring your heart-rate up,” emphasizes Masesar, “so if you are short on time, and you make those exercises intense enough, you’ll be able to achieve your cardio goals as well.”

Canada Day is roughly three months away, and so, as it turns out, could be that beach body if you get on it right now–a three-pronged, consistent attack incorporating diet, exercise and cardio. “The conventional wisdom for weight loss is, eat less and exercise more,” concludes Masesar, “but that’s not really beneficial. What you should do is eat better and exercise more, and you’ll see the results you’re looking for.”
The beach is...that-a-way...

What About...?

Age?

“Depending on the amount of activity you’ve been doing, your endurance will be a little lower when you start, but I don’t think age is a factor; it’s about how much you were doing prior to starting on the program. Regarding diet, you want to create a system in your body that is using up the food that you’re eating, and a 50-year-old who has been eating clean their whole life will be able to metabolize faster than a 30-year-old who has been eating junk.”

Genetics?

“Genetics do play a factor, mainly with body shape. Typically, men want that triangle-type shape, but if your body shape doesn’t match that, then no amount of exercise will give you that shape, so men should be aware of those genetics and know what their body shape is so that they can incorporate exercises that will help give them the features that they do want.”

Hydration?

“You want to have enough water to suit your activity level. Often, they say that you should drink eight glasses of water per day, but I usually recommend that people have at least a small glass of water at 90-minute or two-hour intervals, but I also tell people to aim high so they are remaining hydrated all the time, especially at the times when they are working out and expending a lot of energy while they are trying to get beach body-ready.”