The Vlog

One of my goals as a nutrition coach is to help individuals develop and enjoy healthy eating patterns. I’ll be honest, weight loss itself is pretty simple. Control how much you eat, exercise, and the weight will come off. However, keeping it off for longer than one year is the tough part. That’s why you need to develop new long-term eating habits.

Here are five strategies to make sure you keep weight off over the long haul:

1. Keep a food log detailing what you eat, how much you eat, and your calorie amount for six months – seriously!
2. Follow a nutritional plan and adjust it as needed. Remember, the plan should serve you. If you need help, contact a professional.
3. Share your results, problems, and successes with a group, friends, your nutritionist, trainer, etc.
4. Follow these guidelines for at least six months.
5. Get back on the diet if you fall off after incurring an injury, a holiday binge, hospital stay, etc.

Good luck!

Have you ever known someone who worked their arses off exercising five or more hours a week but they hardly lost any weight? Have you also noticed that some individuals in Weight Watchers who hardly exercise at all sometimes lose 15 or more pounds in those same couple of months just working on their diet? This is the power of dieting and without a doubt, it is the most powerful tool in weight loss.

The research also speaks pretty clearly on this. In one study by Rossner and Flaten, participants who dieted but did no exercise lost an average of 2.5 pounds a week1. In another study, participants who exercised 5 times a week for 12 weeks lost an average of 7 pounds2. By week 3, participants in the diet-only study had already lost as much weight as individuals in the King exercise-only study.

I sit down with each of my clients to map out how much weight they want to lose from diet alone, and from exercise alone. Diet always wins in terms of producing results. Exercise can be close if a person is working out five times a week and not reducing calories significantly, but for the most part, diet is the biggest player in dropping weight.

Of course, if you can do both, then you are at a huge advantage. If you are looking for a customized training and nutritional plan, please don’t hesitate to ask. And if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

1. Rössner, S., Flaten, H. (1997) VLCD versus LCD in long-term treatment of obesity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 21: 22–26.

2. King NA, Hopkins M, Caudwell P, et al. Beneficial effects of exercise: shifting the focus from body weight to other markers of health. Br J Sports Med 2009;43:924–7.

For some people, dropping the daily 6-pack to 1 or 2 beers will work wonder for losing the gut. For others more advanced, switching the macronutrient ratio of carbohydrates from 60% to 40% will provide the last percent drop in body fat they’ve always wanted.

Here’s the important point: these people were ready for this change. It is laughable when people who know nothing about nutrition are given exquisite plans by dieticians. One is basically required to have a degree in the culinary arts, shop at Whole Foods, and have all this time to cook 2 or more extravagant meals.

Here is a list of things that if you already have in place, then you’re at a good starting place.

∙Knowing how many calories you actually get in
∙The ability to use a food scale and measure portion sizes for your foods
∙The ability to pack your foods and to eat your food that you prepared throughout the day
∙The ability to not miss meals
∙The knowledge of the quality amongst the different types of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins
∙Taking the time to learn about your body what works for your body

If you’re not quite sure about these things, take the time to concentrate on just one of them until you master it or it becomes a habit. And if you’re open to learning about all of these including strategies to optimize these attributes, you are welcome to try out my nutrition course entitled “Healthy Eating for Fat Loss.” Call me for more details at 612-599-2114 or e-mail me at von@vongillette.com.

Although being overweight has traditionally been associated with a higher risk of injury, I haven’t really noticed this with my clientele. Let me give you an example.

I just got in a client who wants to lose about 80 pounds. The odd thing is that this client doesn’t possess any physical problems. No back pain, knee troubles, or shoulder problems. That surprised me.

During the same time frame, I got a relatively fit client who was looking to lose 20 pounds. This client was afflicted with hip pain and shoulder pain. This really didn’t surprise me as I see many individuals who appear fit, but looks can be deceiving.

The only sure way is to know how healthily your body moves is to get an assessment. I perform a functional movement screen with all potential clients. This screening tells me which exercises are safe, effective my client’s goals, and what areas of movement a client can reasonably expect to perfect. If you are looking to make sure your body is moving at its best, call me for a free assessment. (http://www.functionalmovement.com/SITE/functionalmovementscreen/whatisfms.php)

Have you ever seen those people who eat junk food, but yet maintain an otherwise healthy-looking figure? We’ll those people might not be so safe after all. According to a recent study conducted in 2008, If you are at a normal weight, (as defined by a normal BMI), but have a high body fat percentage, you are at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease (1).

I’ve observed this first hand in the diabetes prevention program with myself. I technically qualified to be in our program getting the lowest score possible to be diagnosed as pre-diabetes, 100. But let’s not forget, my blood sugars were elevated and this was significant. I ate very well (and my own trainer could testify to that), had a “perfect” BMI of 25, exercised, and maintained an overall healthy lifestyle. While my solution to lower my blood sugars was different than most other’s, it still required that I check my blood sugar’s frequently which I did.

The most important thing to take away from this is that if you do not get checked for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease, you have no idea if you are truly healthy. These diseases are independent of how fit you appear, what your weight is, or even what your body fat percentage is. However, if your body fat percentage is elevated, then you should get checked.

What tests should you ask your doctor for (or your fitness trainer for)? First, get your body fat percentage checked. For men, if your body fat percentage is 23.1% or higher, and for women, if your body fat percentage is higher than 33.3%, then you need further testing. These tests should include a physical, full lipid panel, fasting blood sugar test, and vitamin D check. If you are deficient or elevated on any of these tests, don’t forget that exercise has been found to help in all of these (except for vitamin D when done indoors).

1. Abel Romero-Corral, Virend K. Somers, Justo Sierra-Johnson, Yoel Korenfeld, et al. Normal weight obesity: a risk factor for cardiometabolic dysregulation and cardiovascular mortality. Eur Heart J. 2010 Mar;31(6):737-46. Epub 2009 Nov 20.

Some people think they work hard when they work out. Others read their newspaper while doing their cardio.

How do you know when you’re working hard? In my experience, doing intervals at 90% of your maximum heart rate for 20-30 seconds is a good test to see if you’re really working hard. How do we figure out what 90% of your maximum heart rate is?

I recommend an exhaustion test. Steadily increase the speed and incline of a treadmill until the heart rate remains unchanged after about 10 seconds. I recommend taking about 10-15 minutes to reach this point with intermittent slower periods. In this way, you can make it a training session too.

Once you have this number, just multiply it by 0.9 and you have 90% of your maximum heart rate. Now you can use this as your target number for your interval training, as mentioned in the second paragraph above. Good luck!

Let’s say you work a job. After work you go buy some groceries, put gas in the car, and go rent a movie. But what if I told you that you didn’t know how much you were being paid. I think you might wonder, “Do I have enough to buy the things I want?”

This is like not knowing exactly how much you are eating — if your goal is weight loss. You will have no idea how much you should be losing. But if you do a little math, you can figure out how much you should lose.

A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. If you can burn 3,500 calories, you will lose one pound of fat. So if you lower your calories by 500 calories per day for seven days, you should lose one pound of fat. But don’t forget you have to figure out your maintenance level, i.e., how many calories your body needs each day to maintain its weight. My favorite method is the Katch-McArdle formula (http://www.freedomfly.net/Articles/Nutrition/nutrition14.htm). Once you figure this out, you will be able to count your calories from foods to make sure you are eating 500 calories less than your maintenance level.

For my clients, I tell them exactly how much they should lose. In this way, they know exactly how much they need to eat and train in order to lose that amount. If this sounds complex and you think you need some help, feel free to ask. You can e-mail me at von@vongillette.com.

Von

Diets can be confusing.

There is so much good (and bad) information about dieting that it can be difficult to decide which diets are actually worthwhile. I would like to go over a few bottom-line points any good diet should have.

1. Balance – A diet needs a fair amount of daily protein and fat (30g. or more). These are critical for basic survival. Carbohydrates are not necessary for human survival. This doesn’t mean that carbohydrates shouldn’t be included in your diet. It does mean, however, that carbohydrates should probably not make up the bulk of your diet — even though the FDA still recommends just that.

2. High Quality Foods – No dietary advice would be complete without emphasizing highly nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits (optional), and good fats like nuts, seeds, and organic dairy. Protein that is also grass-fed, free range, and organic are preferred. Without first taking care of your health, no diet can be carried on long-term without ill effects.

3. Long-term Plan – A long-term plan is critical for any diet. Most people will resort to convenience. A solid long-term plan develops good habits and enables people to stick with it without thinking about it.

4. Realistic – A good diet plan must be realistic. Without this component, you could never succeed with a diet requiring you to cook five meals a day when you work 9-5. Unless you’re a chef, it won’t happen. Find a realistic plan that works for you.

Although finding the right diet plan can be challenging, if you follow these guidelines I’m confident you’ll find a diet that works for you. If you want more information or help in finding the right plan for you, contact me at von@vongillette.com.

I am Oglala Lakota and during tribal ceremonies I’ll often hear about healing one’s spirit.

In my experience, when one take’s a hard look at themselves and begins to “train” their spirit with the dedication and honesty that they employ in their fitness and nutrition lives, miracles happen.

What am I talking about? For some, it might mean forgiveness of a loved one who has really hurt them. For others, it can mean re-experiencing all the pain they’ve grown up with and loving their way back from it. For some, it can mean sharing with another the true pain involved in what they’re dealing with now. For some, it may mean battling depression or an addiction.

All of these things will have huge effects on one’s health, weight, and fitness. I believe, however, that good health and fitness and the proper weight can help with spiritual healing. Your mind and body are mirror reflections of each other. Improving one can help the other.

In my nutrition course one of the sessions focuses on the spirit and making sure the feeding of our spirit is aligned with the good things we are doing physically, as well. I invite you to join our group and share your story as these stories seem to help other’s in their journey too.

Thanks.

Von

Hi, I’m Mark. I’m one of Von’s clients and he has been gracious enough to let me upload this guest post.

Midway through 2009 I started taking vitamins and actively began avoiding certain kinds of food, especially wheat products. The vitamins and diet changes had a profound impact on the quality of my life. Without ever going hungry I went from a peak weight of 315 to 305 by the end of the year.

Then I met Von. Since January I’ve been doing the strength and circuit trainings Von designed for me. Not as often as Von would like, but often enough to get my metabolism ramped back up. As a result I’m now down to 274 lbs., a weight I hadn’t seen since 1998.

I’m on track to lose over fifty pounds this year thanks to exercising smarter and eating more wisely. I hate to call what I’m doing a diet because I’m never hungry, and never feel like I’m scrimping on portions.

I’m sharing this story with you because I attended Von’s first two nutrition classes. One of the guys at the first class had been working out for years, but without dietary guidance he was having little luck shedding pounds. My story gave him more confidence in the dietary part of weight loss, and I’m confident the pounds will melt away for him.

Unlike most classes connected with weight loss programs, Von’s not selling supplements, equipment or anything but his expertise and services. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Losing weight is about commitment based on knowledge. Von has the knowledge, and he’s pretty good at getting people to commit. He’ll be posting the times for his next class soon, and I encourage everyone who reads my testimonial to sign up.