August 16th, 2010 2
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How to Burn MORE Calories

I admit, I never was an Einstein when it came to Math. The only time I enjoy counting numbers is in the gym or at the bank.

So when it comes to keeping my bodyfat around 10% year round I am not a guy to count calories or have a cardio crush on the treadmill display (which studies show are inaccurate anyway).

Despite what you may have heard in the gym, muscle does not WEIGH more than fat. A pound is a pound despite what’s being weighed. But muscle is more DENSE, meaning 5lbs of muscle takes up less space than 5lbs of fat (and makes you look a hell of a lot better!) Plus muscle is metabolically active unlike fat which just hangs around for the ride and makes chinups that much harder.

But on page 46 in the September issue of Men’s Health, I noticed a chart showing the estimated calories burned not by hitting the gym but by doing “manly” around the house activities. Remember, muscles are made for movements not mirrors.

Average number of calories an 180lb man burns in an hour of…
(I currently weigh 175lbs, close enough)

Chopping and splitting wood, 491
Cleaning gutters, 409
Mowing grass (pushing by hand), 491
Painting outside, 409
Planting trees, 368
Raking, 352
Trimming trees, 286
Carpentry, 245
Papering or Plastering, 245
Sanding, 368
Wiring and Plumbing, 245
General cleaning, 245

So after a busy and productive morning off yesterday where I “prepared” dinner before breakfast (by throwing a roast in the crockpot), headed to the gym for a quick Dad Fitness workout, mowed and raked the front and back lawn,then cleaned up around the house all before lunch, it made me break out the calculator.

Calorie Countdown Calculator

Dad Fitness Workout (45 mins)- 362 calories

Mowing Grass (30 mins) – 245 calories

Raking Grass (30 mins) – 176 calories

House Cleanup (30 mins) – 122 calories

The total caloric burn from just these 4 activities alone comes to 905 calories!

Provided you eat REAL food that was made by Mother Nature and not Man, like is found in the Dad Fitness Meal Plans, you can eat great tasting food and not have to worry about dieting and counting calories.

So the next time your wife gives you the dreaded “to-do” list think about all the extra calories you are going to burn by mowing the lawn or painting the deck.

Thankfully, from now on, counting calories will be one chore that you won’t have to think about…

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January 28th, 2010 No
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Warmups For Your Workout

I CRINGE every time I see some clown stroll into the gym cold off the street and start loading up the bar without completing a proper warmup.

Coincidentally it seems the same people who neglect this important part of their workout are the same people complaining about shoulder pain or back pain and wrap themselves up like a mummy before their workout with wrist wraps, elbow wraps, knee wraps and the infamous weight lifting belt for EVERY exercise so they can manage to get through their workout.

Even though I don’t recommend the “old school” warmups of walking on a treadmill for 5 minutes and then static stretching before your workout, (which I will explain in a future post) it is still a lot better than doing nothing at all!

What I do recommend is a Dynamic Warm-Up before you workout, so here is my current warmup I do before EVERY Dad Fitness workout to enhance muscular activation and increase joint mobility.

Give this one a try or let me know what you do for your workout warmup by leaving a comment below…

YouTube Preview Image
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November 10th, 2009 No
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5 Tips For Faster Fat Loss

swine-flu-outbreak-a-threat-to-hiversI hope you and your family are staying well during this swine flu craziness.

We have been having some late nights with our little daughter Matea as she has come down with a runny nose and a tough cough which is keeping her up at night.

There is nothing worse than seeing your child sick and there is not much you can do but keep them comfortable…

If you are getting too comfortable with your workout routine, remember that there are ONLY 8 weeks left in this year!

With the Dad Fitness System, 8 weeks is plenty of time to get in shape for the holidays.

The key is to try to get better EVERY day with your workouts and your healthy eating.

Here are 5 Tips For Faster Fat Loss.

1. Break Records

Push for progress and not perfection and challenge yourself by pushing for one extra rep or a couple more pounds every week in your workouts. Use the smallest plates you have available, (usually 2.5lbs) to keep stimulating fat burning muscle.

2. Fun Food

Experiment with a different fruit or vegetable each week by eating the colors of the rainbow. Get your family together and try different recipes, some you will love, and maybe some you won’t. Keep food fun by trying new recipes with foods you haven’t tried before because no one gets fat by eating more fruit and veggies.

fruitsandveggiesstockx_Full

3. Faster Not Further

Increase the INTENSITY in your fat burning cardio intervals… not the duration. Don’t just record you weight workouts. Record your cardio intensity and try to beat it each week. If you sprinted at level 7 this week shoot for 7.1 next week.

4. Fail Proof Your Fridge

Make healthy eating “Fail Proof” by picking up only the groceries you need each week. If you have no junk in your house, chances are you won’t be eating junk. Then before you put your food away, chop up your veggies and place them into containers or ziplock bags to make meal preparation super quick and easy.

5. Step Away From the Scale

Don’t get obsessed with numbers by weighing or measuring yourself everyday. I recommend to step on the scale once a week first thing in the morning because it is normal for your bodyweight to fluctuate up to 5lbs during the day due to fluid and food intake.

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These 5 tips might seem like little things, but they make a BIG difference!

Stay focused and cross off each day on your calendar and ask yourself before you go to bed each night.

“Did I do everything I needed to do today to get closer to my fitness goals?”

Let’s, hope you have a lot of yes’s!

Got any fat loss tips of your own? Feel free to post a comment below!

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July 2nd, 2009 No
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Pizza vs Cardio

I gotta be honest.
Pizza is my ABSOLUTE favorite food!
Especially when I make it myself.

That’s why I am in the kitchen right now whipping up one of my famous Dad Fitness Pizzas for dinner this evening while my wife just took our baby daughter for a walk.

Grilled BBQ chicken, bell peppers, spanish onions, black olives, fresh pineapple, mushrooms and cheese, sprinkled with fresh oregano. Mmmm good..and good for you!
Anyway, so this reminded me of a really funny YouTube video with two of my fellow fitness experts that had a “Pizza VS Cardio Contest!”

They wanted to put the famous saying: “You Can’t Out-Train A Bad Diet” to the ultimate test.

The video hammers home an invaluable nutrition lesson…

So one fitness expert jumps on the treadmill and cranks it up to the absolute maximum speed with a slight incline (without falling off) and starts sprinting.

While he’s busting his butt at 11.0 MPH, killing himself to lose fat, the other fitness expert is standing beside him consuming a box of pizza.

After about 3 minutes, the guy eating has consumed 800 calories (half a pizza) and the guy sprinting has burned 42 calories!

LOL!

Here is the video.

YouTube Preview Image

Moral of the story – you CAN NOT out train a bad diet.

Here’s What You Can Do….Stop following a diet period.

Try these cool new MEAL PLANS instead.

Click Here => Done For You Meal Plans

Compare any other diet book or diet method to simply following a designed-for-you meal plan that eliminates 100% of the guess work and you will come out on top 100% of the time – GUARANTEED.

How do I know this?

Because the best meal plan is based on BALANCE and VARIETY which is exactly catered to your physiological make up. You can’t get more personalized than that!

And the best part is, all you do is plug in a few basic measurements to determine which plan to follow and you begin your VERY NEXT MEAL today.

It’s critical that you put your meal plan into action TODAY – not tomorrow, not next week or next month.

I love these plans because they are SO EASY to implement your very next meal and continue until you have developed the habits necessary to see results so that you stay motivated and finally perfect your body and health.

There are no rules to follow, complex formulas, expensive supplements, ridiculous macronutrient ratios that you need to concern yourself with.

Everything is already DONE-FOR-YOU and designed-for-you.

Grab your PROVEN meal plans here:

==>Proven Fat Loss Meal Plans

I promise these will give you everything you need to eat right so you can implement them immediately.

OK, gotta go, that pizza is smelling good!
Wishing those of you in the US a happy (and safe) Independence Day weekend
with your family.
(Us north of the border had our Canada Day yesterday, my family had a great view of the
fireworks from our patio!)

P.S. Eliminate all the nutrition nonsense and stop thinking you need a special diet which is a complete LIE, massive nutrition conspiracy and scam.

You need to start with a simple nutritional template that is CONSTANT and COMPLETE with the CORRECT foundational nutritional principles.

Take advantage of the HALF-PRICE sale that ends in 60-hours:

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April 27th, 2009 No
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18 Reasons Why You MUST Weight Train

I have got to get something off my chest and I hope it doesn’t offend you…

Forrest Gump movies It seems almost on a daily basis I continue to hear from busy dads who are trying to slim down and get in shape but are only doing long boring cardio like walking on a treadmill or even knee numbing long distance running to burn fat.

First, if this sounds familiar…I applaud you for doing SOMETHING, but if you are putting in some effort I want YOU to get results.

Walking and running are still good ways to stay active but they must not be your only source of exercise if you want to change the shape of your body.
So if you are trying to lose a few pounds and you are NOT doing some type of resistance training like weight training or bodyweight workouts you will NOT be happy with your results!
Weight Training increases your body’s metabolism 24 hours a day, not just for a hour, like when you do long duration cardio like running.
More specifically it is referred to as E.P.O.C. otherwise known as “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.”

Without getting to technical, EPOC represents the process your body goes through in which energy is used to recover from exercise.

When you finish exercising, it takes time and energy for your muscle cells to return to resting levels.

Energy is also needed to replenish depleted glucose, protein and fat stores, and to remove accumulated cell waste.

The more rebuilding that needs to be done, the greater the rate of EPOC, which in turn, means more calories from your body’s fat stores are being burned after your workout.

While the primary factor in determining EPOC is exercise intensity, there is also duration to consider — just not to the same extent.

Just visualize spinning one of those Tops you used to have as a kid, as your metabolism. You want to spin it really hard so it will continue to spin on its own when you let go of it.

Studies show your metabolism remains elevated to such a level up to 48 hours after high intensity exercise like weight training.

When intense weight training exercises using your entire body are combined with intervals in the same workout, like are found in the Dad Fitness Workouts, the positive effects it will have on reshaping your body is astonishing!

Still don’t believe me? Here are 18 more reasons to weight train…

1. Weight training tones your muscles, which looks great and raises your basal metabolism, which causes you to burn more calories 24 hours a day. You’ll even burn more calories while you’re sleeping!
2. Weight training can *reverse* the natural decline in your metabolism which begins around age 30.

3. Weight training energizes you.

4. Weight training has a positive affect on almost all of your 650+ muscles.
5. Weight training strengthens your bones reducing your risk of developing osteoporosis.
6. Weight training improves your muscular endurance.
7. Weight training will NOT develop big bulky muscles; just hard toned muscles!
8. Weight training makes you strong. Strength gives you confidence and makes daily activities easier.
9. Weight training makes you less prone to low-back injuries.
10. Weight training decreases your resting blood pressure.
11. Weight training decreases your risk of developing adult onset diabetes.
12. Weight training decreases your gastrointestinal transit time, reducing your risk for developing colon cancer.
13. Weight training increases your blood level of HDL cholesterol (the good type).
14. Weight training improves your posture.
15. Weight training improves the functioning of your immune system.
16. Weight training lowers your resting heart rate, a sign of a more efficient heart.
17. Weight training improves your balance and coordination.

18. Weight training elevates your mood.

If you have some other good reasons of your own why YOU should weight train please share it and post a comment below!

…and if you want a quick and easy recipe for my Mmmmmm Meatloaf, watch my latest cooking video.

YouTube Preview Image

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

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