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GETTING FIT IN THE ZONES
Those of us who enjoy educating others often use metaphors. Metaphors make concepts easier to understand. One of those concepts is the relationship of exercise and dieting for long-term success. The metaphor that I use is that of a military campaign launched fifty years ago called "D Day". This was the most important battle on the western front of the war, and if you have been at war with your weight you can quickly appreciate the metaphor. The Allies choose to attack the German Nazi's to liberate Europe using a simple plan. They focused their entire offensive on one objective - take the beaches at Normandy. First, the Allied troops had to successfully cross the English Channel. Next, they had to take the beaches at Normandy. That was the objective. The goal was to liberate Europe. All resources were focused on Normandy, on one beachhead. If the beachhead wasn't taken, then the goal could not be accomplished. Successful diet and exercise programs share similarities with this strategy - to focus on the beach head. To take it, we have to cross our own English Channel, we have to cross the chasm. And, we have to focus all of our energy on the beachhead while keeping our eye on the goal- liberating Europe. If our ultimate goal is a healthy and fit lifestyle it becomes important to focus on our own objective - our own beachhead. Our beachhead may be different than someone else's. For some it might be embarking or staying on an exercise program, hiring a personal trainer or making use of an investment in a piece of exercise equipment that we use. For others it might be taking a healthier approach to choosing foods. A third alternative might be use of the most underutilized keys to successful lifestyle change -- the support that can keep us on the beachhead after we have arrived. I call this "Living in the Zones": the fat burning zones, the nutritional zones, and the supports zones. Before we explore the zones, let's answer a few easy "yes or no" questions. Question #1. Perhaps you have seen some of the new exercise equipment in your club that allows you to select a workout program by pushing a button called the Fat Burning Button. Make that selection and the machine will set our heart rate zone at 60%-75% of your age-calculated maximum heart rate. But, you want to burn fat so why push any other button like the one that says "interval" or "hills" when you have a "fat burning button". After all you want to burn fat not be a better hill climber. Or perhaps you've entered the world of cardiac monitoring - choosing to train in heart rate zones. You've read that this fat burning (sometimes called the Weight Management Zone) is the place to hang out forever to burn a high percentage of fat as the fuel source for our workout. Though we now know that age related maximum heart rate is not very accurate way of setting heart zones, is this one zone workout the best way for you to burn fat when you exercise? Is it too hot or is too cool, too high or too low? Reality check one: does it make sense that you can push a button that automatically puts you into the fat burning zone? Question #2. You might be tempted to switch to a different dietary plan that might include zones like the 40-30-30 diet plan to burn fat. This caloric blend of fuels recommends higher amounts of protein and fat and lower carbohydrates blaming carbo's as the reason you are getting fatter. Without any scientific proof, there's currently a host of diets that follow a long list of short term crash strategies that lead to disordered eating patterns and yo-yo dieting. The latest claim we need to eat more fat to lose fat. In t he face of all we've learned about the long term advantages of a high complex carbohydrate low fat diet does this make sense? Reality check two :does it make sense that you can eat more fat to get less fat? Question #3. Persistence is the key to success. We're challenged daily with mottoes that we should "just do it" or "grab the brass ring" or "use our will power". Diets and exercise gurus prescribe diet and exercise programs and remind us that if we practice what they preach we'll attain our goals. If, for one reason or another, we can't live up to the demands or limitations of these programs have we failed? Reality check three: Do one size fits all programming make sense? The answer to all three of the reality check questions is "NO". What does make sense is what you already know in your heart and in your gut. You know that success long-term is a combination of an exercise plan and a diet plan that ultimately gets you fit and successfully keeps you on your beachhead. Putting that together without support can be a struggle especially when you add to it the complexities of your behaviors and habits. Add to that formula the driving forces behind why you eat and why you exercise and then you realize that this isn't at all simple. With these answers in your arsenal you can now prepare to cross your own English Channel and if you put all of your energy into one objective -- taking the beachhead. There's some information that can help you. It may even surprise you. • There is no one fat burning zone There is not one "fat burning button" that works. The "fat burning zone" strategy is nothing more than a market tool. In fact, fat burns in all five of the heart zones. Granted, it burns in different amounts and different proportions depending on several factors: how fit you are, how fat you are, how much fat and carbohydrates you eat, what's your exercise level and intensity. With a higher exercise program your going to burn more total calories. If you exercise at an intensity harder than you can talk (generally near your anaerobic threshold) your fat burning capacity will not increase because oxygen must be present for fat to be burned in muscle cells. However, at that higher intensity you are burning lots of total calories - the increased energy requirement is filled with glucose, not fat. Here's an approximation for a relatively fit (25% fat) , 150 pound person when they are exercising in each of the five different heart zones: THE FAT BURNING ZONES
This chart shows that fat is burning in all zones. The higher and the hotter the zone and the longer time that you exercise the more total calories that you burn. Ultimately you want to burn lots and lots of total calories and lots and lots of fat as a source of those calories. It's exercise in multiple zones that can best accomplish this especially exercising in the heart Zones 1 thorough Zone 3. • There is no on dietary plan for everyone. We all have individual differences, needs and wants and our diet plan needs to fit that fact. In fact on a micro scale and individualized dietary strategy can be complicated and full of details. But, on a macro level Ronda Gates and Covert Bailey in their new book SMART EATING (and I strongly recommend it) are proponents of a perspective that no competent nutritionist or dietitian can disagree with:
Gates and Bailey go on to remind us that athletes are great calorie burning machines. They have lots of active muscle mass to grab calories and metabolize them. Moreover, those muscles are natural fat burning machines. The less fit struggle because no matter what they eat their calories are more easily converted to fat than those who are more fit. They explain this simply:
Beyond that Gates' reminds us that individual caloric needs must come from all food groups and be tempered by including your favorite nurturing foods along with nourishing foods. This is no good foods, no bad foods strategy can liberate us from diet plans that make demands that not in keeping with our habits and behaviors. • Very few of us can do it alone The beachhead on Normandy was not taken by one woman or one man. It is taken by a group effort. Researchers have shown that if you have a support for objectives (Normandy) and goals (Europe) your chances for succeeding increase enormously. That's because having support around most of us helps to keep us focused, makes us feel better, provides peer pressure to perform, helps to make us more mindful of our behavior and habits. Your friends can be more than just individuals - they can be your coach the heart rate monitor, your teacher a book like Smart Eating or Heart Zone Training (Edwards, 1996), your social group the athletic club, your four legged best friend the dog who needs the exercise, or your gear, a pair of snowshoes or a treadmill. Get your support around you and they will help transport you across the chasm. They are your English Channel. • Getting into YOUR zones It took Oprah Winfrey a long time and many failures to take her beach head and hold it. But reach it she did. She's even reached her goal - lifetime fitness. She did it with the help of a personal trainer to individualize here exercise and eating program and a chef who cooked low fat foods. Not everyone can afford a chef and a personal coach but with some simple strategies you can become your own best trainer and dietitian. And, if you're willing to risk accepting that not everyone can do it alone you can get the support you need. You can be as successful as Oprah and if you cross your own channel and name the beach head that will help you reach YOUR goal. You one need to follow the lead of every successful person. Like Oprah, they took a 3 prong approach to success: exercise in multiple zones, following smart eating principles, and accepting support. When you do, you've made a lifestyle change. You've won the battle and the war. Signing the peach treaty with your "enemy" -- a sedentary lifestyle will be an afterthought. Isn't super health worth it? ABOUT SALLY EDWARDS-
For the past 30 years, Sally Edwards has been racing in the front of the pack in business,
sports, and lifestyle training. She is the author of nine sports and fitness books,
including Heart Zone Training (1996) and the Heart
Rate Monitor Book (1993). She has also launched a number of different
fitness-oriented businesses, and lectures worldwide on a broad range of topics including
breaking through the barriers that keep us from our personal achievement. She resides in
Sacramento, California, and is the CEO of Heart Lifestyles, Inc. About Ronda Gates - Mention any successful
educational health promotion program and you will quickly discover Ronda Gates was
involved in its development. Ronda is best known for an ability to weave together the
physiological and psychological aspects of lifestyle change, making them easy to
understand and apply in daily life. Ronda is a pharmacist, fitness expert, author,
certified lifestyle counselor, popular motivational speaker and creator of the dynamic new
Heart Lifestyles weight management strategy. Ronda is celebrating the best seller status
of her most recent book, co-authored with Covert Baily, "Smart Eating". FOR A FREE SAMPLE ISSUE OF THE FITNESS MONITOR, THE HEART RATE MONITOR NEWSLETTER PHONE/FAX (916) 451-7043 OR WRITE:
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