A little over two months ago, I started a weight-loss club. Its purpose is to give people who have something in common (losing weight) a platform to communicate the goings-on with their diets.
The kick-off of the program was strong. I encouraged everyone to engage in some kind of aerobics every day to lose 2 ½ pounds in a five day week.
For the first couple of weeks, things were going nicely and everyone was on target. By the third week though, reports started coming in about members “plateauing”. “Plateauing” means that you are stuck at a weight and can’t get any movement forward. Research shows that “Plateauing” is a huge source of frustration for people who are dieting, and is the number one reason why they stop.
While reports of plateauing continued to come in, I was researching how martial arts workouts impact the body. While I was not able to find any information about karate, specifically, I did find a wealth of information about the kind of workout that karate workouts are comparable to, anaerobic.
Anaerobic exercises cause oxygen overflow. ( Before I studied how a body metabolizes food, I used to call heavy breathing “oxygen debt” but when you think about it you are breathing rapidly and deeply taking in too much oxygen - not enough oxygen which would be debt.) Sprinting causes oxygen overflow, doing karate patterns is a form of sprinting.
Other forms of sprinting that never crossed my mind are shadow sparring, rope jumping, and certain sit-ups and calisthenics. After a little more research, I modified certain areas in my “ Fighting Fit” workout to make those portions of the workout more anaerobic pronounced.
Quick, fast, and in a hurry, I introduced my new workout concept to the class. In short, the “Fighting Fit” workout was going to be two workouts in one: 20 minutes of aerobic exercises and another 20 minutes of anaerobic exercises (plus the usual 10 min warmup and 10 cool-downs ).
Not only were we able to break through plateau stages, but people reported losing up to three pounds in a workout.
Two Day Calorie burn while lying in bed:
One of my weight loss club members is named Anika. She reported a huge increase in metabolic activity after I reformatted the class: appetite suppression, loss of more calories after each workout, and increased energy during the day.
In the first week of October, Anika, sadly, reported that she had hurt her back and neck sleeping in the wrong position and had to take a day or two off from working out, and rest in bed (that was on a Monday). I did not get (and didn’t expect to get) a calorie loss report from her while she was bedridden. On Wednesday, I received a text from her that, because of her increased metabolism due to the anaerobic workouts, she had lost 2 ½ pounds while lying in bed.
It is now my firm belief that increasing metabolic output is monumentally important for people over 40 who are desirous of losing weight. Don’t just take my word for it. This year commit to losing weight after the holiday season and join one of my super fat burning programs. You’ll be glad that you did.