Formosa Fitness

 When I started out as a trainer, I knew fat loss was most people's goal and I had the idea that hard 30 minute metabolic workouts were the cure. I had used them to drop quite a bit of weight myself so I expected them to work for nearly everyone when I started training folks. And for some people, they did do the trick. We had folks (many, actually) than came in and did the workouts three times a week and lost fat. I was happy to see that. But not everyone responded to the program. Why not?

As I looked at what folks were doing, one thing I noticed was that outside of our fitness sessions, some folks were not moving much. Their daily activity level remained very low and simply exercising with us three times a week wasn't enough. Think about it for a minute -- three 30 minute sessions a week is only ONE HOUR AND 30 MINUTES A WEEK! Sorry for the all caps but there are 168 hours in a week (and yes, I used a calculator to figure that out) and turning your metabolism completely around in only 90 minutes of exercise a week is a pretty tall order. For some people, it's just enough leverage to do the trick but for others it's not enough.

So I was wrong. My mistake.

Since then, I've advised fat loss clients that they need to do cardio 4-5 times a week outside of class or at least walk 10,000 steps every day in order to get fat loss results. I'm making that same recommendation to you right now!

We are just too sedentary as a society for even three hard exercise sessions a week to make a difference. And let's be honest -- that three times a week tends to be more like twice a week, doesn't it? Far too often we let life get in the way of getting results. Realize that every time you miss a workout (assuming you are working out 3x a week) your exercise volume drops by one-third!! Are you dropping your calories by one-third to account for that? Yeah, right. No one thinks about that, do they? Starting to see why fat loss is hard?

Getting in 10,000 steps of walking a day is something everyone can do and it gives you an activity buffer against missed workouts and the occasional diet mishap. For your fat loss plan to work, it will be a vital component that your workout can not replace. You need workouts, diet, and activity levels acting in sync with each other to conquer fat loss.