2 Hours Can Save Your Life

Its much easier to maintain a healthy level of low body fat than it is to lose 10-15% body fat and 30 lbs or more. But it can be done. Pick up any fitness publication these days and you will find amazing transformation pictorials. Check the timeline. It may have taken these people 3 months, 6 months, or even a year, but these people have made incredible journeys.

Were they less busy than other overweight individuals? Are people too busy with appointments? If that is a problem, individuals should schedule an appointment 2-4 times per week with the gym just like it was any other business meeting. Spend a half-day on the weekend shopping for an accomplished personal trainer that can give you a program that requires only 2-4 hours per week. C'mon, 2-4 hours per week, who can't spare that?

What type of exercise should you do? As mentioned, the more muscle mass you have, the more energy that will be spent at rest due to an increase resting metabolic rate. Next, you have to do lots and lots of running or biking right? Well, no, not necessarily. Aerobic exercise certainly is beneficial to a healthy cardiovascular system and is important for the performance of some sports and it is likely one of the best methods for obese individuals to lose weight. If nothing else, it should improve some health parameters.

Aerobic endurance exercise has traditionally been used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes but its effects on long-term glycemic control is small. Researchers found that resistance training helped increase muscle mass and improve long-term glycemic control in an elderly type 2 diabetic population (Eriksson et al., 1997). Chronic exercise training in diabetic rats was associated with reductions in basal glycemia, and such reductions did not occur in sedentary diabetic groups (Farrell et al., 1999). Therefore, exercise programs should focus on increasing muscle mass because muscle in the prime user of blood glucose.

Tremblay et al. (1994) showed that vigorous exercise (high-intensity interval training) favors negative energy and lipid balance to a greater extent than exercise of low to moderate intensity (traditional aerobic exercise). Moreover, the metabolic adaptations taking place in the skeletal muscle in response to the interval program appear to favor the process of lipid oxidation. This study compared traditional endurance training against high-intensity interval training. Even though the interval training expended less energy per training session, the subjects lost more body fat than those performing regular endurance training.

If you are super busy, simply split your training time in half or thirds. A 15-minute walk two times a day plus as little as 15 minutes of resistance training can pay off. Aim to burn more and more calories every exercise session. Up the intensity! Yearn to lift 5 lbs more weight this week, or get another 2-3 reps per set. Improvement will equal results. Don't get put off by the people that do have 2 hours to train. Realize there is a point of diminishing returns...think about it, unless you are a competitive athlete, are you really getting much more from spending 45 minutes running as opposed to 30 minutes? Very soon you will realize that there is nothing to slipping in some fitness to your workday.

You set goals for retirement savings, for business performance, for golf scores, why not some fitness goals? You get professional plumbing help, you have a professional cleaner clean your clothes, so what's wrong with asking a fitness professional to fine-tune your body? What one of these people can teach you in 1-2 hours is something that will last a lifetime!

To be optimistic, it is simply a problem of education and exercise, moderation and muscle mass, teaching and training. For the amount of commercial time an adult sits through during an hour of prime time TV (about 15 minutes), one could easily read an article from a fitness magazine detailing and outlining a fitness regimen for success against weight gain. Surely, in this society that allows one to operate fitness equipment while watching television, there is an opportunity to fight against fat. There are 168 hours in a week. If you train, that only takes 2-4 hours, plus 1-2 hours for travel and showers, etc. That leaves you approximately 160 hours for work, friends, family, sleep, and T.V.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Mens Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com