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At Upfit Training Academy in New York, NY, a lot of clients enjoy a glass or two of alcohol after work, and some even stop for a drink after a workout. However, if your goal is weight loss, everything that you eat or drink plays a role in whether you achieve your goals or not. Unfortunately, alcohol does have many negative effects, besides the diminished performance both mentally and physically, potential for addiction, increased risk of diabetes and liver disease. Those reasons alone should make you want to skip that drink. If you’re trying to lose weight There are other reasons you might want to stick with water when you gather with friends.

Alcohol has empty calories.

You’re probably already aware that alcohol has calories, but no nutritional value—the very definition of empty calories. The body uses those calories first if you combine it with other carbohydrates, protein or fat. That means it puts off burning fat and adds to the fat storage. However, once those calories from the alcohol are burned, the body goes back to the regular fat processing routine. If you drink, drink straight alcohol on the rocks or with water, so the calories burn faster or opt for wine. Avoid beer and mixed drinks.

Your testosterone level is reduced by alcohol.

If you’re trying to build muscle and lose fat, testosterone is a good friend. Unfortunately, when you drink alcohol, it reduces the potential to act as a fat burner, while lowering metabolic rate by interfering with muscle gain. The less muscle you have, the harder it is to burn calories and the tougher it is to lose weight. Even when you’re resting, you’ll burn fewer calories. By interfering with the testosterone levels, alcohol both directly and indirectly affects your weight loss.

When you drink a glass of alcohol before or with your dinner, you’ll be more likely to eat more.

When you have a drink before dinner, the chances of eating more increases. Not only does it lower your inhibitions, making you more susceptible to over-eating, you simply feel hungrier and eat more. One study found that taking an alcoholic drink before dinner beefed up caloric intake far greater than if you drank a soft drink or water. Another study compared how much was eaten at a meal with an alcoholic drink compared to a meal with a soft drink. The subjects were told to eat as much as they wanted. When they drank alcohol, they ate far more they did with the soft drink.

• Alcohol has twice as many calories per gram as protein and most carbohydrates. Alcohol logs in at seven calories for each gram, which is just about twice that as protein or other carbs. Fat has just two calories more per gram at 9 calories per gram, but without any potential for nutrients good for health.
• Besides the calories from alcohol, which provide no bulk to fill you, many alcoholic drinks contain other ingredients that add to the caloric intake. The calories cause insulin release that increases fat storage.
• About 25% of the alcohol is directly absorbed from the stomach to the blood stream, with the rest absorbed through the small intestine. Carbonated alcohol, like champagne is absorbed more quickly. Food slows down absorption.
• The pounds gained from drinking alcohol tend to accumulate in the belly. There’s no doubt about it, beer bellies do exit. If you’re struggling to get rid of that belly fat, stick with water with your meal.

For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy

When you exercise, you burn calories and that can cause you to lose weight, but does it cause you to lose fat? Not necessarily. Some aerobic exercises, such as running long distances, burn tons of calories, but those calories come from burning both fat and lean muscle tissue. If shedding fat is your goal, that simply won’t help. What does help burn fat? Strength building exercise helps burn fat. When you do strength training, you’re burning a lot of calories, but you’re also building muscle. That means the calories are coming from fat.

Strength training also does more to help you shed fat.

Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does, so the more you have, the more calories you burn. Not only will you maintain and build muscles as you burn fat, you’ll boost your metabolism to help you burn even more calories. That means that it helps you lose pounds, by burning fat, but also keep pounds off in the future.

The amount of time you exercise affects fat loss.

You probably think that more is better and a long workout is best, but you’d be wrong. You need to workout hard when you workout and push it as far as you can with shorter breaks. You can increase the amount of weight you lift to make it harder, rather than increasing the length of time you spend. Once you workout an hour, studies show the benefit of the workout drops dramatically and subjects you to the potential of muscle damage from injury.

Don’t forget about healthy eating.

Eating healthy not only helps you lose weight by controlling caloric intake, it helps you build muscle tissue. Protein is ultimately important if you want to build muscle tissue. Animal sources for lean protein include chicken, beef, fish and turkey. Plant sources include beans, tofu, nuts or seeds. You can boost the benefits of plant protein by fermenting seeds before using them for baked product or cereals. Soaking them or sprouting them also helps.

• If you’re trying to lose fat, don’t worry about the scales if you’re eating healthy and working out. A cubic inch of muscle tissue weighs more than a cubic inch of fat, so you may be burning fat and replacing it with muscle, but the scales won’t show any weight loss. Track loss of inches.
• Make sure your diet has adequate protein. Protein makes you feel fuller so you won’t eat as much or as often. It also takes more calories to burn. You need protein to build muscle tissue, too.
• Besides exercise, don’t forget about hydration. If you’re dehydrated, even slightly, you’ll have less energy and burn fewer calories. The next time you get tired, don’t grab a cup of coffee, but get a bottle of water instead. You’ll be surprised at how it energizes you.
• Getting enough sleep is also important for shedding fat. While you sleep, the body converts fat to energy. You’ll be able to work toward your maximum potential. Sleep also balances satiety and hunger hormones. Adequate sleep means you won’t get hungry as often.

For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy

Have you ever set a chin up (or pull up) goal for yourself but eventually fell short because it seemed too difficult or tedious? Do you watch videos of people doing chin ups and wonder how they “make it look so easy”?

If this sounds like you, you’re far from alone–plenty of people want to become better at chin ups. Majority of their success (and yours), comes from how you choose to approach the task. Simply attempting to do chin ups from a dead hang position is not your best bet here.

Make sure to start at a dead hang, as seen here.

That being said, there are various ways in which you can develop a better chin up. One of our go-to methods here at Upfit is the assisted chin up. The assisted chin up is great because it not only allows you to work through the entire range of the motion, but it also requires a good deal of core strength to do the exercise effectively.

One big variable in this exercise is the degree of tension in the resistance band you choose. Needless to say, the tighter the band, the more assistance it will offer & the easier the chin up will be. You want to find a happy medium in terms of resistance–not too easy but not extremely difficult…realistically you want to aim for 12-15 reps for this exercise.

Getting your chin completely above the bar allows you to reach the full range of motion.

Once the band is secured above your pull up bar you will start by putting either one or two feet in the loop of the band and allow yourself to drop enough so that your arms become fully extended.

From there you will brace your core and begin your chin up, finishing when the chin is completely above the bar & your shoulder blades are drawn down and your upper back is fully engaged. It’s important to note here that each rep should end in the dead hang position, arms fully extended.

After you have the proper form down & understand the full range of the motion, you’ll want to aim for 12-15 reps and 3-4 sets. Once you have hit that rep/ set range successfully for 3-5 weeks, depending on your frequency, you can begin to lower your resistance and eventually build up to body weight chin ups.

Every year people make New Year’s resolutions and by the end of the second week of January, most of them are broken. One of the problems is that they’re just resolutions, without a path to reach them. You can start your resolution today, but don’t forget to turn it into a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. It’s the only way you’ll make your resolutions come true.

SMART is how you can remember to make goals.

As noted before, goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Those letters create the acronym SMART. Specific goals include goals like, I will lose twenty pounds, not I will lose weight. Measurable is included in the goal, since it names the number of pounds, but can be broken down to I will lose two pounds a week for ten weeks. If your goal was to lose twenty pounds in a week, it wouldn’t fit the next category, attainable. Relevant means it’s important to you, not just a whim. Finally, time based indicates you have a specific time frame, not just some day, because without it, you don’t know if you’re succeeding or failing and some day never comes.

No matter how much paperwork you do to make it a goal, you have to take action.

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you may use the goal setting experience as a new way to put off starting your fitness regimen. Be true to yourself. Identify whether it’s what you’re doing and just do something. It’s one reason we offer virtual training, so you can begin your program immediately. Without action, there are never any changes and if you want positive changes, you must do something, NOW.

You don’t have to go big.

You can start small and make minor changes. Take a walk every day if you’re not ready for a full workout program or fit enough to start one. As your fitness improves, gently move toward a program of regular exercise. If you want to lose weight, start by giving up sugar. It’s the toughest thing to do, since sugar is in everything and very addictive. Keep a journal of your changes or take a photo of yourself to log your progress. It won’t take long before you’ll notice changes in your appearance and overall health.

• Fitness takes both physical and mental changes. You have to have the proper mindset. Working out not only trains the body, it trains the brain neurons. Find activities you enjoy, making it easier to stick with your program.
• Always look forward and never backward. Don’t look at all the failures of the past. That won’t change them. Instead, get rid of the negativity and congratulate yourself for all the positive steps you take.
• When you’re getting into shape, focus on more than just the scales. Take measurements, pictures of yourself and note your energy level on paper. You’ll see that you’re making progress when you stick with the program, even on those weeks when the scales say differently.
• Working out is more fun when you have a workout buddy. It also keeps you more accountable when you workout with someone else. If you work with us, a personal trainer acts in that capacity. If you’re working out on your own, find a friend, spouse or family member to join you.

For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy

If you can’t get started in the morning without your favorite cup of joe, then you don’t want to hear that coffee is bad for your health. If you love that coffee, there’s good news on the horizon, plus some bad news, too. Coffee gets mixed reviews when it comes to whether or not its healthy. It has both good and bad plant chemicals and nutrients in it.

Coffee can give you that little burst of energy when you need it most.

The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant that absorbs in our bloodstream, then goes to the brain. It blocks the neurotransmitter adenosine. That allows dopamine and norepinephrine is allowed to increase and boost the firing of neurons. Studies show that it can improve areas of brain functioning. You’ll burn more fat when you drink coffee, primarily because of the caffeine. The caffeine in a cup of coffee signals the body to burn fat and increase adrenaline levels, which improves performance at the gym.

There are also nutrients in coffee and it reduces the risk of diabetes.

Believe it or not, even though coffee has no calories, it provides some nutrition. There’s 11 % of your RDI—Referenced Daily Intake—of vitamin B2 in just one cup of coffee. That same cup has 6% vitamin B5, 2% of vitamins B1 and B3. It offers 1% folate RDI, 3% of both potassium and manganese and 2% RDI of niacin and magnesium. Studies show that drinking coffee can even reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes by as much as 67%.

The shakes and other problems can come from drinking too much coffee.

Yes, you can get too much of a good thing, even coffee. Each person has his or her own tolerance level to the effects of caffeine, where the boost in energy becomes shaking discomfort for the rest of the day. Too much can cause heart palpitations, panic attacks and disrupt sleep. To avoid the problems, monitor your coffee intake and don’t drink it later in the day, such as after 2:00 pm. If you want to quit coffee, take it slowly. The caffeine is addictive and there’s withdrawal symptoms, like headaches and irritability.

• While most people don’t drink coffee for the health benefits, be aware that decaf doesn’t have them. It’s made by using solvents to remove the caffeine.
• When you drink coffee, make it coffee made with a paper filter. French press unfiltered coffee has cafestol, which increases cholesterol levels.
• Drink just plain coffee, with not sugar, sugar substitutes, cream or cream substitutes. They add loads of extra calories and aside from minor benefits from real cream, very little nutrition.
• Coffee contains high amounts of antioxidants to keep you healthier. It also can lower the risk for Parkinson’s disease by as much as 60%.

For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy