Artslim
 
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Resting Metabolic Rate, a 1000 calorie a day variable, is possible between people of the same weight, height, age and sex. It is no more accurate than BMI, charts.



Recently I have been reading with great interest about the variability of things like Body Mass Index, (BMI) and Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), between individuals.

The fitness trainer, who weighs me and works out my body mass composition at the Aquamoves Gym in Shepparton, would always remind me that his slim and fit body always came out as obese on the regular BMI charts. There was absolutely no way he was obese. 

Current BMI charts say that I am obese. I do not feel obese or think I look it. Overweight yes.. I could get myself a Futrex push button, wand body composition measuring tool, as I believe, that would be far more accurate, in giving me a guide as to what my ideal weight, would be than any BMI chart.  I do have strong memories of being extremely ill, skin my rib cage bone shape, showing, wearing a size extra, extra, small small women’s, (xxssw) dress size, equivalent to today’s size 6 Australia, size 4 US, when I was at my so called correct BMI, as assessed by those same for everyone, BMI, calculators.  I was that thin, in my early 20’s. There is no way known I would be stupid enough to get that thin again. BMI charts are crap as regards what would be the correct weight for me.  I long for a better measuring tool, to become more commonplace.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), appears to have something like a 1,000 calorie variability from one person to another. For example people with 1263 to 2152 RMR, when assessed, using an accurate RMR measure, would all be told they had a RMR of 1743 if assessed using the standard, mathematical formula to asses Resting Metabolic Rate Equation of RMR, based on height, weight age and sex.

Using the MedGem, or BodyGem home or professional, individual reading per client, RMR measuring kit on 5 individuals of the same sex, height and body weight and assessed, their RMR individually, there was almost 1000 calories difference in their RMR reading.

This huge variability explains the long weight stalls I have, even when following a calorie controlled eating plan to the letter and explains to me the amount of work I need to be doing is to increase my muscle fitness, therefore my ability to burn calories. Focusing on building the RMR rate higher, is a better focus for me than cutting calories, lower, which would in turn, would reduce my RMR even lower.

That information is yet another reason, why I am convinced, that long term, dieting, using weight Watchers, in my mid life, which focused on counting, points and not building muscle, was very damaging, to my body. I hit long time weight stalls that lasted up to 18 months at a time when I used weight watches as my focus to try to become slim, as a result as soon as I quit, because it was not working for me.  I regained, all the weight and more, because my RMR had decreased due to my having focused on diet restriction and not muscle, development and fitness. This resulted, in the current low RMR, that I have where I lose weight extremely slowly on a 1200 calorie allowance and some seriously, intense, exercise sessions. I believe that all those efforts

I regret having spent most of my middle life through to early, senior years, counting weight watchers points, dieting while becoming increasingly obese, discouraged, believing it was 'my genes' making me fat, when it was the dieting and points counting mentality, itself, making me increasingly unfit and eventually having osteoporosis.
 
I should have been relaxing, enjoying eating delicious and varied, healthy, portion, controlled meals and FOCUS ON FITNESS, maintain and develop healthy muscle to increase my metabolic rate and protect my bone density. 

If I could influence any younger person in weight management, it would be to appeal to them, 'DO NOT DIET'.  

I think if anyone were struggling along at a tortoise  pace as I am doing in releasing weight, they would, like me, benefit from doing some serious muscle building work to strive to raise the RMR.

Not one of us is ‘average’.

Manage your weight, by increasing your metabolism while eating healthy and portion controlled. Learn what portion, control, is. Speak to a certified, practicing dietician so you understand what is a balanced, eating plan. Do strength training at any age, at least three times a week.

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Photo, 'fast runner', from, Active.com
This story builds on what I wrote, in my last post of how I taught myself to increase my running distance from 1 minute to being able to run 5 kilometres, by stopping thinking of it as a race, or funning as being associated with speed, and just slipping into a comfortable for me pace that I could maintain and go the distance with.

Want to Run Faster? Learn to Relax

This is a great article, writen by Jerry Lynch, Ph.D.Runner's World

Introduction:-
One of the keys to optimal running performance is relaxation. A relaxed mind produces a relaxed body—an efficient body, a fast body.

Relaxation has been an important factor in the success of some of the greatest runners in history.

The secret to smoother, faster running is to focus on being relaxed, rather than "efforting" more power. Efforting causes muscles to tighten. Athletes who stay loose run best.

Read More :- Want to run Faster, Learn to Relax.
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Me, earlier this year, still learnig to run.
 
 
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Picture by Stuart Bradford
 If you are a woman who exercises, get ready to do some math.

Last week, researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago announced a new formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate, a measure commonly used by athletes to pace themselves and monitor their progress. In a study of nearly 5,500 healthy women, scientists discovered that a decades-old formula for calculating heart rate is largely inaccurate for women, resulting in a number that is too high.

The news may be a vindication to many women who have struggled to keep up with lofty target heart rates espoused by personal trainers and programmed into treadmill displays.


The commonly used formula subtracts a person’s age from 220. But based on the data collected in the Chicago study, the right formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate is a little more complicated: 206 minus 88 percent of a woman’s age.

Using the old formula of 220 minus age, at 64 years, my average maximum heart rate is 156 beats per minute. That means my pulse should stay around 132 beats per minute during my workout to achieve a target heart rate of 85 percent. I always aimed for 130; try not to exceed this due to my heart valve issues.   Hence, my calorie burn is far lower according to my Pulsar heart rate monitor watch than younger people doing the same exercise are.But based on the new calculation, my  average maximum heart rate is 149 beats per minute, meaning my desired target heart rate at 85% is just 125.8 (let’s say 126)  beats per minute, 6 beats a minute slower than under the old formula. Although the gap seems small on paper, it can be the difference between an exhilarating workout or a frustrating one that ends in exhaustion, out of breath and not performing all the exercise repetitions, because I am striving beyond the capability of my heart and lungs to work efficiently. This is how I instinctively taught myself how to run 5 kilometres, I stopped thinking of a runs a race and broke into an easy sustainable movement I call a run, I did not strive for speed, just the action and  distance. .“There’s nothing wrong with achieving a higher heart rate with exercise, and if you can maintain that, it’s fine,” said Dr. Martha Gulati, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern, who led the study. “But it might be that some women are getting tired and need to stop or slow down because they’re not able to maintain their heart rate at the higher level. But they’ve been using the wrong numbers.”

I do not need to work below what I am already pushing myself to, but I now feel even more comfortable in not being concerned if my watch does not show me as burning calories like a younger person, in my work outs, I am working well within MY maximum healthy training zone for my age and female sex.

You can read the full report, here:-Formula to asses, maximum heart rate for women.
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I have been asked 'has the Michelle Bridges 12 weeks body transformation, transformed my body? '
"Judge for yourself."

The latest photos of me show a senior woman radiating good health and the results speak for themself.

Fitness strength and stamina results assessed yesterday and blogged.

I went from running for 1-minute maximum to 7 kilometres without stopping and speed at intermediate level, not bad with scared lungs, osteoporosis and almost 64 who had never really run in her youth.

I went from swimming 200 meters maximum to being able to swim 1,000 meters.

Push ups per minute from 15 to 35 (advanced level)

Wall sits (lower body strength test) from zero to 1 minute.(intermediate level.)

I succeeded in doing a hamstring stretch for the first time in my life.

I hiked, climbed and rock scrambled  up seven mountains, had not been able to do that since I was 21

Flexibility was a -14cm in a sit stretch reaching to my toes and this is now a -3 cm

I have lost cm and kilos but I had been doing that before 12wbt (Without dieting, I do healthy lifestyle not diets ), I do not lose weight fast, as I am deliberately strength training as I have osteoporosis and I do not focus on weight off,  I focus on excess fat off, while building fitness.
 
I achieved a lot of fitness improvement and excess weight loss on my own through healthy lifestyle, tried other forums but they were weight loss focused not fitness focused and were not for me.

I love eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables; it is a great way to feel i am getting most of my women vitamins, naturally.

This Michelle Bridges 12wbt, worked for me because I was prepared to trust her. I knew she had a good knowledge of what was a healthy diet, (as I do too) and I now know what I need to do to continue toward my goals as she knew a lot more than I did about exercise and this is where I gained the greatest benefit.  I also benefit from being in a forum and I want the moderator to be a, no nonsense, positive attitude person and she has these qualities. 

 
 
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I did my end of 12 weeks ftness test today and am thrilled with the results. 

Kathy's Fitness Tests results for 12 weeks. 1st March till 21st May 2010
Fitness Test:
1km Time Trial
1st March 2010 8 minutes 54 seconds = beginner

21st May 2010 7 minutes 30 seconds = Intermediate.


___________________________________________________________________________
Upper Body strength measure
Push ups.
1st March 2010 15 per minute = Beginner

21st May 2010 35 per minute = Advanced.


___________________________________________________________________________

Lower Body Strength Test
Wall Sit

1st March 2010 0 not able to do this = beginner

21st May 2010 1 minutes = Intermediate.


____________________________________________________________________________
Sit and Reach Test
1st March 2010 -14cm = Beginner

21st May 2010 -3cm = Intermediate.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Abdominal Strength Test
Stage 1: Wrists to kneecaps Sit Up

Stage 2: Arms folded across your chest. Full sit up, Elbows to thighs


1st March 2010 -Level 1 = beginner
21st May 2010 - Level 2 = Intermediate.
____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 
 
 
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Crunch Time Lose Weight Fast and Keep it Off

By Michelle Bridges

Format: Paperback, 212 pages Published In: Australia, 02 February 2009


I  have and love this book.I own and use all the Michelle Bridges books and the DVD's  I highly recommend them and the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation program that I have done.

These books are compatible with my attitudes to healthy lifestyle and are suitable for use by those people who use the artslim forum. though I recommend do yourself a favour though and do the Michelle Bridges, 12 week body transformation, at least once even if you have to adapt the program to your own needs, you will be sure to learn something and benefit as I have done from the professionally run program and forum.  

If you are not working with a certified practicing dietician and qualified personal fitness trainer then please do yourself a favour and skip the diet books and groups and come straight to the healthy lifestyle books and forums so you break free from the self abuse of dieting and the self neglect of over eating and under exercising and discover the joy of loving yourself fit and slim today and always.
 
 
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Eating Top Dog, for that extra bite, Kenilworth Handmade cheese with wafer thin natural, Falsasser crisp bread for a gourmet breakfast.

Yes I am  doing the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation ;-), I'll be balancing my nutrients and calories to the program.

 I just 'go with what's available in the area I am in, and at Kenilworth that's a great Home made cheese and yogurt factory opposite and an oval here I can run on, so I have been using both these local assets.

 I arrived in town with both the car fridge and the caravan fridge packed full of fresh vegetables and a little fish in the freezer so I am finding it easy to continue to eat very healthy on this tour. It is impossible to buy 75% of the food that is on the shopping list in the 12wbt program as it is listing ingredients, that could be purchased, in a major city or suburban, large supermarket, not what you can purchase in a country town as you tour Australia.

But never mind, I’ll cook the bean shoot Asian dish when I can buy bean shoots and it doesn’t matter if that is three weeks after that meal came up in the program, I am still following it in spirit.  Also pineapples are what I can buy here in country Queensland, I never see blueberries in the stores anymore and strawberries are too expensive, so I adapt to what becomes affordable and I am not a person who considers shopping with a shopping list, saves money.

Moving on today to Hervey Bay, QLD, so I’ll have my oval run, now before I leave, then be walking or running in the sand again tonight and I hope to enjoy a delicious fish salad by the beach tonight J. 

Reg and I are loving life, loving each other, loving being alive, working to make sure Reg and I keep as fit and healthy as posible and able to keep on enjoying life.

 
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"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read." -Alice Walker.

I have become sentimental today. Warning, do not read on if you’re not prepared for a tearjerker, because I am crying, but they are happy tears of emotion, it’s not sadness I feel.

I know the Mother’s Day  Classic, is to raise funds, for breast cancer research and it is usual to dedicate your run to someone you know who has had breast cancer, but I am dedicating my private run, on Mother’s Day, to my mum who died at age 62, in 1972, following a ten year battle, with heart disease and emphysema.

So while running around the oval during two separate 500 meter runs yesterday I was thinking , ‘I hope you can see this mum and be happy’, and I was also thinking, ‘I wish mum had good guidance and been able to start a health recovery program before it was too late for her, she died far too young’.

When I was at my rock bottom, three and a bit years ago I did the only thing I had the control to do.  I decided I would lose weight and knowing every attempt I had made before from trying the best diet pill through to weight watchers had only resulted in some initial weight loss then months even years of plateau weight stall. So I made the best decision of my life, not to diet at all.   I have always eaten healthy, occasionally, I indulged in non-nutritious food and often I ate more food than my body was burning for fuel.  Arguments about poor metabolism and 'oh I can’t help it its in my genes' or my 'Syndrome X or whatever' are just excuses I told myself, I was frankly eating too much too often and not exercising enough. 
I changed my lifestyle to being consistent in self care.

I did not begin with running, a hundred meter walk had me puffing and in pain, I just made a start. That's all we have to do, 'take on to day', at the best we can do. We can 'do today'.

Today, three years and three months later, I just ran 4 kilometres in 32 minutes maintaining a consistent 8 kilometres an hour and I dedicate my run and my newfound, fitness to you, mum, with all my love. I see you now, much as you looked when you left me, only it’s the healthy happier version. Every time I look in a mirror now, I see you smiling back at me. Yes, we had a troubled relationship, there were times I hated you and in all honesty, I was a monster of a defiant child. 

I have learned that mums are not perfect and we all do the best we can with the skills and the circumstances we find ourselves in, even I made mistakes as a mum but I know I did the best I could and this helps me to understand that you also did the best you were capable of. You always told me that your idea of heaven or hell was that you thought that souls might be aware of what people thought about them after they had left their human body form and other than that, you had no idea what there was beyond human life on earth.  I think that was  a very insightful observation and I don’t  know that anyone has a better explanation of heaven and hell than that, so mum, I hope you are in heaven today, feeling joy  and a happiness seeing how fit and happy your youngest daughter is.

“I talk about you with pride these days and I now treasure that my childhood was so unusual, you helped me develop skills I have needed in my life, there is a purpose for everything after all.  I love you mum, Happy Mother’s Day, Mum”

 
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Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there.

Have a fantastic exhilarating run or walk or as my friend Shelley said, ‘I am Ralking or Wunning’  J.

I am here in bed trying to reeve up my natural testosterone and about to have my second mug of good local harvest espresso coffee then I’ll be putting my track clothes on and hope to be on the oval to start my run ‘in spirit’, beside the 9.50 starters at today’s Mother’s Day Classic .

I had a little practice try out run yesterday, around the 500-meter oval here ar Maleny. It wasn’t my best performance and I could not time trial as I am not certain of the exact size of this large oval the 500 meters is a guestimation after talking to other runners who use the track and run 400 meters regularly.

I will be back later to report in how my run goes. Yesterday I only ran 400 meters x twice with a blogging break between them. It was not my best performance, lol, ‘can I blame altitude’, as I am in the mountains. 

I have slacked off in exercise for almost a week, today will get me back to trying to do more instead of settling for less than I am capable off and I sure still need the  toning up as yesterday’s running pictures of me look like before photos I can sure work to improve on.

 
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After relaxing and enjoying afternoon tea outside the van, we went for a walk to the beach. 

I had my jog along the clean sand of the beach near, Ballina Beach Holiday Park. Where we are staying. The photo of my running was taken, near the end of my run in the dark so it looks very grainy.

It would have been so easy to just stay relaxing in the park, catching up, being too busy. I also found the running a little harder to night than on other nights, I do seem to have more fitness some days than others.  I ran just over a kilometre in the loose sand, took a rest for 5 minutes then ran a second 1 kilometres.  It was not the best exercise session I have had, though I should realize the sand being soft, made it a greater effort, to run 2 kilometres on this sand than it was to run 6 kilometres at seven mile beach on firm sand. I should not judge the exercise on distance but on effort.

Tomorrow I go to Ballina to shop for my fresh fruit and vegetables and I will be looking for an oval to do my timed 1 kilometre time trial on. That is my fitness test, to see how much increased speed I have gained over 1 kilometre, in the past 4 weeks.  

 
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