1) Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

BMR is the total number of calories your body burns for normal bodily functions,
including digestion, circulation, respiration, temperature regulation, cell construction, and
every other metabolic process in your body.

In Trainer Ben words, your BMR is the  total of all the energy used for basic bodily functions, NOT including physical activity.

BMR usually makes up for the largest amount of your daily calorie burn – about two thirds.  BMR is at its lowest and slowest when you’re sleeping and you’re not digesting anything.

BMR varies dramatically from person to person depending on genetic factors.

You probably know someone who can eat anything they want yet they never gain an ounce of fat. This type of “fast metabolism” person has inherited a naturally high BMR.

2) Activity Level

Next to BMR, your activity level is the second most important factor in how many
calories you need every day.

The more active you are, the more calories you burn; it’s that simple.

Become more active and you burn more calories. Sit on the couch all day long and you hardly burn any.

3) Weight

Your total body weight and total body size are also major factors in the number of
calories you require.

The bigger your size, the more calories you’ll require to move your
body.

4) Lean Body Mass (aka LBM)

Total body weight correlates with the number of calories you require, but separating your
total weight into its lean and fat components allows you to calculate your calorie needs
even more accurately.

The higher your Lean Body Mass, the higher your BMR will be.

This is very significant when you want to lose body fat because it means the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn at rest.

Muscle is metabolically active tissue, and it requires a great deal of energy to sustain it.

The best way to increase your BMR is to increase your LBM. This is why weight training helps you lose body fat, although indirectly. Also the reason men usually burn fat a little quicker than women.

5) Age

Metabolic rate tends to slow down with age.

Therefore, the number of calories the average person requires also goes down with age.

Fortunately, you can prevent and even reverse the age-related slowdown in metabolism by developing more muscle through weight training and healthy eating.

6) Gender

Men usually require more calories than women.

The average male has a maintenance level of 2800 calories per day. The average female requires only 2000 calories per day to maintain.

The reason for this difference is not so much a sex-related issue as a body
weight and muscle mass issue;

the average man carries much more muscle mass than the average female and this explains the spread in calorie requirements between men and women.

Except for individual genetically-related differences in BMR, a 140 pound man and a 140 pound woman would have the same calorie requirements if their activity levels were identical.

How many calories do you burn a day?

Trainer B.

Unable to sleep is common for most even me. That is the reason I am writing about it at 11:30pm.

A lot of you are familiar with the common question I ask every morning before boot camp. “Did you get plenty of sleep last night” and more often than not I hear the response “NO”!!!

How important is it really?

Lack of sleep increases snacking and bingeing

Multiple sleep related studies have found a connection between sleep and the hormones that influence our eating behavior. Two major hormones are involved. Ghrelin is responsible for feelings of hunger. Leptin tells the brain when it’s time to stop eating. When you’re sleep deprived, your ghrelin levels increase at the same time that your leptin levels decrease. This equals an increased craving for food and not feeling full. And sleep deprived people tend to choose different foods to snack on—mainly high caloric sweets and salty and starchy foods. These small changes can lead to long-term weight gain.

How much sleep should I get to lose weight

The average person needs between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. Some more, some less. Very few of us actually get the minimum of seven. How do you know how much sleep you really need? Experts suggest to sleep as long as you want for several days (best done on vacation somewhere with sandy beaches and warm weather . Then, your sleep should stabilize and you’ll find yourself waking up after the same number of hours daily, within 15 minutes or so. Once you know about how much sleep you need, start getting into a steady routine. Set a regular time for sleep. Start getting ready ahead of time. And avoid using the bed for watching TV or doing work (Guilty).

Exercise + Sleep + Healthy Diet = Weight Loss

Disclaimer: Don’t think snoozing a few hours longer each night will solve a weight problem. It won’t. You can’t use this article as an excuse to miss 5:30am boot camp.  Exercising and eating healthfully is still the way to go. But, lack of sleep may soon be considered another risk factor for obesity. Especially since 65 % of Americans are overweight and 63% of people don’t get eight hours of sleep a night. Interestingly enough, many of those who are overweight also don’t sleep enough.

A recent study

At the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies today, Dr. Walter Moraes of Universidad Federal Sao Paolo, Brazil, presented the findings from a study he recently conducted which demonstrated that people lose weight three times as fast while asleep than while lying in bed awake. Dr. Moraes studied 14 healthy men age 21-30, confining them to a bed with a built in scale which allowed him to constantly monitor their weight. The subjects spent the night in bed asleep, and then remained in bed for the next 8 hours, awake. They were given food and drink proportionate to their body weight and, according to the poster, did not urinate or defecate during the study. Dr. Moraes found that the average weight loss during sleep was 1.9 gram/minute (or ¼ pound an hour), but only 0.6 gram/minute while lying in bed awake.

Good night and sweet dreams.

Hope you enjoyed this post and if you want to get more info about weight loss click the face book icon or check out our site here Oklahoma City Fit Body Boot Camp.

Quick little post before i run my car to another mechanic and check out what I got Sara for her 25th Birth Day below.

1: Write down your goals.

2: Create a healthy action plan.

3: Devise a desirable reward.

4: Set a completion date.

5: Enter a competition.

6: Enter a competition amongst your friends.

7: Put motivational quotes all over your house.

8: Write “Every Day is a New Battle” on your bathroom mirror.

9: Post your favorite fitness role model on your refrigerator.

10: Post your favorite fat picture on your refrigerator.

11: Type “Your Character is your Destiny” on your screen saver.

12: Type “Get off your Fat Butt” on your screen saver.

13: Practice abdominal and back strength by using a stability ball for a chair.

14: Rollover and do some crunches in-between emails on your stability ball chair.

15: Buy a nice wardrobe that will fit you in two months.

16: Donate all your fat clothes to Salvation Army.

17: Moderate your strict eating with a splurge meal once a week.

18: When eating your splurge meal, look at the body type of other people who eat fat meals daily.

19: Buy some fitness magazines.

20: Read Body For Life by Bill Phillips

21: Join a fitness web blog: www.fitlifeokc.com

22: Read “The Edge” (This is the most motivating sports book ever)

23: Pray and thank God you only have to lose half the weight he lost.

24: Make a supportive fitness group. (Join OKC Fit Body Boot Camp group on Facebook)

25: Hang around healthy fit friends.

26: Surround yourself with people and things that promote a healthy lifestyle.

27: Find a running partner.

28: Inspire your own partner to run with you.

29: Create fitness goals with your partner.

30: Make a workout and diet log.

31: Personalize your journal by adding inspirational quotes and pictures. (I love the quotes from “The Best of Success” book)

32: Document your progress: weight, body fat, and measurements.

(Join the Oklahoma City Fit Body Boot Camp “6 Week Body Transformation”)

33: Attend a bodybuilding/fitness show.

34: Talk to competitors and pros that live for fitness.

35: Ask your role models what motivates them.

36: Take a chance and email your role model off their web site.

37: Take a supplement for physical gains as well as a mental ‘placebo’ effect.

38: Drink some water.

39: Drink more water.

40: Date someone more fit than you.

41: Date someone who inspires you. (Ok easy guys I said inspires you to get fit)

42: Date someone you want to look really good naked for.

(If you are single of course)

NOTE
Men are driven by symbols of fertility that women possess, and vice versa. In addition you both need to be on the same page to stay fit and have a great sexual chemistry.
43: Shave your body so you can see all your muscles.

44: Tan your body so you can see all the lines and contours of your muscles. (This ones for you Kevin)

45: Get outside often. Going to the lake in the summer is a good motivator.

46: Hire a trainer. Scratch that I meant a fitness professional.

47: Become a trainer. I have past clients who got in great shape became personal trainers because they experienced first hand the effects of changing their own lives.

48: Ask questions.

49: Look like a trainer.

50: Buy new athletic shoes.

51: Buy a new workout outfit.

52: Buy clean, new and comfortable socks.

53: Workout hard BUT have fun at the gym.

54: Do group training with a friend. (This month you can bring your friends and get two weeks FREE at OKC Fit Body Boot Camp)

55: Do HIIT training. (High Intensity Interval Training like what we do at boot camp)

56: Get a massage once a week. (Only if you worked out hard and didn’t miss. This is a reward)

57: Drink a healthy energy drink like Gun Powder by PPN.

58: Plan a vacation where you have to wear a swimsuit.

59: Read Lance Armstrong’s biography.

60: Envision your workout during your warm-up.

61: Focus on the workout, one interval at a time.

62: Treat your workouts like you are getting paid for it based on performance.

63: Conquer your negative thoughts by pushing your body into painful consciousness.(I Love Doing This)

64: Experiment on how much you can make yourself sweat. (No not by sitting in the sauna)

65: Make it a goal to be the fittest person in the weight room – or any room for that matter.

66: Test your Max on bench press and squats. (Make sure to warm up)

67: Post a fitness calender on your wall. (If you are married ask BEFORE putting Sports Illustrated swimsuit Calender on your wall)

68: Put a before picture of you on the wall.

69: Watch pumping iron. (a c)

70: Read The Encyclopedia of bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger

71: Don’t buy a home exercise bike or treadmill. Studies show that 93% become clothes hangers after the first 6 months.

72: Become the inspiration amongst your friends.

73: Help someone who is very overweight or wants to lose some weight and get in shape.

74: Visit my web sites:www.trainerben.com www.fitlifeokc.com

75: Place your alarm clock across your bedroom so that you have to get up to turn it off in the morning. (This works a little to well)

76: Place your athletic shoes right next to your alarm clock.

77: Place a quote right next to your alarm clock that says: “Today you are closer to the person you were meant to become.”

78: Alarm your cell phone to give you daily reminders to eat, workout and give gratitude.

79: Volunteer your time with people who don’t have full function of their bodies.

80: Volunteer your passion for fitness at a senior center.

81: Look up new, healthy recipes to cook. (I love the book eating for life by Bill Phillips)

82: Search for new, healthy restaurants to eat at. (I am fixing to start doing this for the blog)

83: Observe the body type of the people at restaurants you shouldn’t eat at.

84: Read the book “What to say to yourself when you talk to yourself” by Shad Helmstetter, PH.D.

85: Learn a new exercise technique like Kettle Bell training.

86: Turn off your TV and run.

87: Buy a new MP3 player or IPOD and put some high, energy, workout songs on it. (Reggae is actually favorite)

88: Buy new workout devices like a heart rate monitor or pedometer.

89: Once a week go to the gym at a different time to workout by yourself.

90: Workout with your trainer at the same time everyday.

91: Workout using all new exercises.

92: Vary your cardio by changing the type of cardio you do. Mix it up

93: Say a prayer for power right before you train.

94: Say a prayer for performance right before your set.

95: Say a prayer for pain during your set.

96: Say a prayer for persistence after your set.

97: Say a prayer for positive action after you train.

98: Get passionate enough to write an article about your success and send it to me.

99: You know what motivates you. Quit reading and make it happen.

Hope you enjoyed just a few ideas on getting up and getting motivated. If you haven’t had a chance be sure to click on the face book icon and check out the best way to get in shape.

Some of you may know that my Wife 25th Birth Day is tomorrow as well as mine (yep we have the same birthday). So what did I buy Sara for her 25th???

NOTHING!!!

I made her something, check it out and let me know what you think.

And yes it is my work below I used be an artist.

This is one of our engagement pics and what inspired her B-day present.

And after 30 hours of work here is what I came up with. A little abstract interpretation.

Can you believe  the first week of the new year is almost over. I thought this would be perfect a blog post on how to reach your goals. I am going to share my own 2010 goals with you at the bottom and I want to hear yours as well.

Some of you may of heard about this but if not in 1953 a very famous study took place, the graduating seniors of a major university (Yale) were asked if they had written goals, and plans to achieve them, after they left the university.
It turned out that 3 % had written goals and a game plan to reach them. 14 % had goals but they were not written. The other 83%  had no goals or plans at all, aside from getting out of the university and going on vacation that summer.
Twenty years later in 1973, they did a follow up on the graduates in the study and asked them, among other things, about their financial situations. They found that the 3 percent of students who had clear, written goals and plans upon graduation were worth more than the entire 97 percent of graduates put together.

So what does this experiment have to do with your fitness goals?

It has EVERYTHING to do with them

Before we start an exercise plan, we must write down our fitness goals.

This will program your subconscious towards achieving your goal.

EXAMPLE

Imagine that you have two drivers, each with a brand new Car.

They both set to travel across the country toward a distant destination.

One sets off with no road map, navigation system, nothing.

The second driver takes the time to plan his trip carefully using road map, navigation and getting advice from people who have traveled that path.
Which driver do you think will reach his destination on schedule??

The first driver probably won’t even reach his destination.
Your fitness goals are pretty much the same.

People with clear, very specific goals and plans that they work from each day, accomplish on average, 10 times the result as others who don’t have a clear idea of where they are going or when they want to get there.

Hope enjoyed this short post and may all your fitness goals come true for you in 2010.

If you would like to check out Oklahoma City’s Number one way to lose weight and have fun while doing it… click here

Or stay in touch with us by clicking on the face book icon to the right.