A Fitness Primer
by The Trendsetters
There are so many fitness articles out there that are focused on weight loss. And, the premise is the same. Eat grass, run a lot, and drink as much water as you can. One thing those articles miss out on is advising you to pee before you go into critical meetings.
If you’re not careful, you’ll end up like our friend Pinky.
Well, when you actually look to achieve the Trend Effect, you actually subscribe to a different fitness philosophy. We aren’t so much focused on weight or any other almost arbitrary data point. Your weight can fluctuate literally from hour to hour.
We recommend that you focus more on body composition and regular health checkups with your primary care provider. A healthy body composition is less about weight and more about following a lifestyle with a 360 degree focus on your overall health and wellness.
Team Trend Effect is definitely on the “don’t starve yourself, lift and be healthy” team. We visited our friend Dr. Google to snag a picture that shows the difference between a core focus on cardio and a core focus on lifting and/or high intensity interval training. We found this one but feel free to look for other examples.
It’s totally possible that you prefer the look on the left than on the right. That is perfectly fine. But don’t fall into the misconception that lifting weights will automatically equate to you being much heavier than if you only did cardio.
For Americans used to weight in pounds and/or those who can’t be bothered to do the conversion for yourself, 63kg converts to about 139 pounds. Also for the Americans and/or those who can’t be bothered to do the conversion for yourself, 64kg converts to 141 pounds. So, a 2 pound difference.
Let’s dig deeper. On the left, the cardio version of the young lady limits her calorie intake to 1200 calories per day to hold to that 2 pound difference. There’s not much room in a 1200 calorie diet for the occasional slice of pizza or bag of chips.
Or tequila. Team Trend is down for a nice, chilled shot of tequila with lime and salt.
Okay, so let’s continue. Note that the weight lifting version of the young lady eats 1800 calories per day and has a muscular and fit looking form despite only weighing two more pounds.
Yes. Amazed us, too!
So, how do you get started? If you want to start the shift to thinking more about body composition than on weight and starvation… keep following us and our site. We will have great workout and diet recommendations for people at just about any stage of their fitness journey.
But, before you dive in, let’s go over a few of The Trend Effect rules.
- Understand your specific caloric requirements to lose, gain or maintain weight. There are plenty of online tools and mobile apps that can help you calculate what your caloric intake should be. Some things to factor are your current activity levels, whether you have any hormonal imbalances and your current weight. Also remember that these are more rules of thumb. You should be prepared to take regular measurements and daily weigh-ins to monitor the accuracy of the tool results. Adjust based on about a month of data
- San Antonio wasn’t built in a day. We know the traditional saying is “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. We actually really like our city! And it’s been exploding over the last decade. So, San Antonio didn’t grow to be the 7th largest city in America overnight. Neither will you be able to achieve your fitness goals overnight. Or in a week. Find a plan you like and stick with it.
- Don’t sweat the complicated stuff. It’s easy to find tons of information on fitness and wellness with the help of Dr. Google. However, the approaches we like are rather straightforward and applicable to most of the folks looking to make fitness gains. Leave the branch chain amino acids and timing of meals to powerlifters and bodybuilders. For the rest of us mere mortals, eating a balanced diet with a focus on whole foods, regular weightlifting or HIIT that stresses the muscles and elevates the heart rate and getting enough rest for your muscles to recover from the stress will do the trick.
Good luck and know that you have fans in The Trend Effect team!
