This is a question we are asked nearly every day. The answer to that is a Yes and a No. What do you take out of that? Let’s start with the Yes: Just picture our body as a composition of different ‘materials’. The one that shouldn’t change are the bones. The human body has about 10% of its weight as bones. The more exercise one does, the more density and stability is built in the bones. On the opposite with growing age and/or inappropriate diet the bone density gets less which leads to demure bones with the tendency of fractures. The other important tissues are muscles, water and fat. Each of it has a different weight. So, when we say weight loss without exercise, what would you guess you can lose quicky? Yes. Water! There are lots of detox products consisting of teas, juices, pills etc. in the market that are recommended to sustain on for a week by skipping most of your food. After one week of a very disciplined diet you see a move on the scale to the left. I am sure you will find that great and see it as a big success, and as a proof that the diet worked. However, what nobody tells you is you lost mainly water stored in the tissues, which is not bad, but just not sustainable. If you are here reading this blog, then you are definitely looking for a sustainable weight loss with more or less efforts. The most important thing is that you feel your body as a whole. There is no such thing as losing weight around the arms (if they are not muscles) or at the stomach only. Mind and body belong together and only in complete harmony you are successful with weight loss.
That brings me back to the initial question: Is weight loss possible without workouts? Here I say no. Why is that? The healthy body consists of about 60-70% of muscle weight slightly differing with age and gender. When you gained weight due to inappropriate diet and sedentary lifestyle, then this portion changes in favor of the fat tissue. Which is bad. Muscle tissue does not only make sure we can move around, doing chores and keeping our skeleton functioning (like joints and spine), it also houses the power cells of our body. Many metabolic processes run in the muscle cells, like regulating body temperature and powering movements and brain activities. What all those processes have in common is that they burn carbohydrates down to fuel the power cells. When there are not enough carbs in the system, believe it or not, our metabolism turns fat into the needed carbs for fuel. Isn’t that fascinating?
It becomes obvious that the less muscle tissue the body has, the less energy cells can get at work. Even worse, with reduced numbers of power cells the body tends to do the opposite: turning carbs into fat. Unfortunately, there is NO way to build muscle without movement. The less you move, the more muscle mass you lose and that is not a desired outcome in your weight loss efforts. When I said mind and body are seen as a whole, then moving around and building muscles are driven by a mindset to welcome any activity as a reward for the body to stay healthy. Even if more activities are a challenge in the beginning, they end up in a rewarding thinking by feeling the success. We from Fitness Comes To You understand the challenges that come with the weight loss journey, and our personal trainers are experienced to keep you motivated and determined through your weight loss program. We bring the right volume of activities into your days to replace fat tissue by muscles. You will be the winner due to building new muscles into your body and melting down the fat.
Read Eric’s story…
Eric is one of the busiest persons I ever met, running a business with back-to-back meetings and with a phone that seems to ring constantly. I felt nearly guilty to ask him to share his story. All the more was I surprised that he said yes instantly without even consulting his agenda. Here we are:
‘ To be honest I feel great to talk about my story and if it’s only to help others to find back into a healthier life. Actually, I was always living healthy, or so I thought. In high school I played in a competitive soccer team and didn’t eat too much junk food. After university I had less and less time for sports specifically when I started my business. I was pretty successful soon but had to sacrifice most of my sports, started eating between meetings whatever I got into my fingers, and believe me that wasn’t always good stuff. Drank tons of coffee, didn’t sleep well and started smoking. One morning I noticed that my shirt must have shrunk overnight. Oh man, I obviously gained weight and was not aware of it, gone was the sixpack long time ago. That was the first day without food. Eating less would do, so I thought. Extra coffee. More cigarettes. But nothing changed except that I was in a terrible mood, most of the time my secretary had to suffer. That went on for about 2 weeks I believe. Then it happened that my secretary came up with 2 options: either she quits and leaves me drowning in work, or I start to work out with an online personal trainer to get a grip on it. She and my management team bought a voucher for 10 sessions. Wow! I went for the latter. Although I was skeptical in the beginning, I quickly noticed how easy it is to squeeze a session in between meetings and wherever I want, be it at home or in a spare office room. It turned out that online worked perfectly for me. I worked out stress, got a better sleep, calmed down. My personal trainer helped me too with my diet, and involved my secretary to help me. I reconnected with my team because I wasn’t moody anymore and we had fun at work and sometimes did workouts together after a heated discussion. After 2 years I have lost permanently 27 pounds and never gained one pound back. Now, I really make time for my 4 workouts a week in my agenda, I seldom cancel. And I feel so much better now. I play soccer on some weekends. At age 38 I feel again like my high school days. Energized and athletic again, which keeps me going in my business.’
We would like to help you in your weight loss effort. We design the right program for you.