A well known person in Kolkata called me up for helping her to lose around 20 lbs of fat. “But I don’t have the time to exercise like you!”, she said.
(pic source: flickr.com/photos/ geekandpoke/2231731282/)
Now, she had no real way of knowing anything about my exercise regime or durations. I took it as a compliment that my physique looked to her as if I spent a lot of time in the gym (I don’t).
I had to answer her. I had to tell her that fat loss was not just a phone call away. One doesn’t get fat loss tips on the phone, and get lean. Fat loss comes when you commit to it. It is a full time commitment — not a half hour workout on a treadmill watching the news.
Another important thing she needed to hear was that the most important component of a fat loss program is not exercise, but diet (and the main component of a diet should be motivation, but we digress). It is what you eat that makes you fat. It is what you eat (and don’t eat) that will make you slimmer. Exercise is merely the icing on the cake (if you can excuse the bad pun). So, how much time do you need to eat right?
Does it take longer to eat meat, eggs, salad and fruits compared to hamburgers, pizzas, sodas and chips? Maybe, maybe not. But, for sure, you are going to spend eating more times in a day if you pig out on junk food. Eating clean is, in more ways than one, timeless.
As far as exercise is concerned, how much time is good? Fitness pros know that the testosterone and growth hormone peaks that come with exercise disappear after 45 minutes or so. So, if you have time enough to train for 45 minutes three times a week, it should be good. If you are super busy, you could train for less. Like 10 to 15 minutes. In a sense, less is more in the fitness world, but you should know that those 10 or 15 minutes should take more out of you than an hour of running.
(pic source: http://www.funnies.com/notimeforbreaks.jpg)
So, I told this lady, “How much time do you have for fat loss? Less time than you spend in the bathroom? Do you have time to go to the bathroom every day? Then you have time for fat loss! Do you have time to live? If you do, you have time for fat loss. For you, that is what life should be centered around- your health.”
Is it any wonder that friends call me an extremist?
