PERRY BUCHANAN: Weighing reality against expectations

One of the most challenging aspects of designing an effective exercise program is making sure your expectations and goals match what’s realistic. You need to pave a pathway to reach realistic goals. To accomplish your fitness goals remember Goldilocks and avoid extremes. In this article I will list some common expectations and real world realities.

Expectation: Extreme, fast weight loss.

Watching weight loss programs on reality TV shows like “The Biggest Loser” and believing you will be able to lose 30 pounds in a month is an unrealistic expectation. In setting goals, it’s easy to be overly ambitious and strive to accomplish things as quickly as possible. Most infomercials and hyped up ads for weight loss programs motivate us to believe it’s a simple process to lose an extraordinary amount of weight in a short period of time.

Reality: Safe, healthy weight loss is gradual and should be about one to two pounds a week for most. If you need and want to lose a lot of weight, don’t believe it can’t be done. Just know it can’t be done overnight. Map out a plan to do it safely. The best way to ensure the weight stays off is to lose it gradually.

Expectation: Spot reducing.

Frequently, I see a lot of people wishing to reduce the amount of flab on specific body parts such as the belly, hips and thighs.

Reality: You cannot spot reduce. To emphasize my point, I often state that if it were possible to spot reduce, every obese person would have a skinny face from all the chewing! Although you can firm specific areas with strength training, you can’t target where to burn fat; it tends to come off all over. However, the spare tire around your middle is more metabolically active, which means it’s often the first to go when you exercise. Stick to measurable goals, such as body fat percentage, resting heart rate, weight or inches lost, so that progress can be gauged.

Expectation: Belief that more is better.

Reality: How much and how often should people exercise to gain these health benefits? First, any physical activity is better than none. For adults, most of the health benefits are realized by doing 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, like brisk walking. Research confirms that breaking exercise into several 10-minute bouts is just as good as one long session. Exercising for a shorter time at higher intensity produces the same benefit. So jogging or running for 75 minutes per week provides similar benefits to doing 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise (walking).

Expectation: Belief that the more intense the better.

Reality: A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that neither low nor high levels of physical activity were as effective as moderate amounts for warding off heart failure. Those in the study that reported the highest and lowest levels of physical activity had a greater risk of heart failure than those who exercised at the median level. Those that reported walking or biking for at least 20 minutes per day fared best, with a 21percent lower risk of heart failure and recent exercise appeared to be more protective than exercise participation in earlier years.

Expectation: Belief that you will accomplish all you need by just the 3 hours a week you spend in the gym.

Reality: How you spend the other 23 hours of the day is crucial in accomplishing your weight loss and fitness goals. Your non-workout activities referred to as NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, play a large role in weight control. NEAT can account for a significant part of your daily calorie burn, as many as 1,000 to 2,000 calories. Activity does not have to be just structured exercise. Vigorous activities like mowing the lawn or cleaning the house can be as good as playing tennis or jogging. You can hike, play with your kids, garden, go out dancing, walk your dog, and many more activities. If you get an hour or more activity every day, you’re on the right track.

You need to know that exercise, nutrition and lifestyle are all important components of an effective fitness program. Motivation needs to carry over beyond your workouts. Set goal time-frames and review the benchmarks that you have achieved so far, and review previous, perhaps not so successful, ways you have tried achieving and maintaining fitness-related goals. Think of setting realistic performance goals, and you will succeed.

Perry Buchanan, owner of PT Gym, is certified as an Exercise Physiologist through the National Academy of Sports medicine. Email him at [email protected]. Follow at ptgym on Twitter.