RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Mom was right, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! During sleep our metabolism (rate at which we burn calories) stays slow because our body knows it's not consuming cal. By skipping breakfast it continues to be slow. Now @ lunchtime, we're starving & more likely to make unhealthy choices & overeat! So eat breakfast to boost your metabolism! Something SMALL & quick if you're on the go.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Cellulite is a collection of fat deposits under the skin. To reduce the appearance:

1) Boost your metabolism by eating a SMALL meal/snack every 2.5-3hrs.

2) Avoid foods high in trans & saturated fat.

3) Strength train 3x/wk. Weight training keeps metabolism high 24-36hrs.

4) Do cardio properly to burn cal from fat & not cal from energy 3x/wk (high-low intensity intervals every 60sec for ONLY 25mins).

‎5) Have a qualified exercise & nutrition professional calculate your specific daily calorie limit & start staying within it! Remember, calories consumed vs calories burned!

6) Consume a WHEY ISOLATE PROTEIN after EVERY time you exercise (weights & cardio) to build more LEAN muscle tissue. More you have more calories you'll burn throughout the day on top of what you burn during exercise. If your goal is to cut down on body fat & just tone your muscles you want a protein called ISOPURE Zero Carb.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

A better way to measure success with your exercise & nutrition is if your body fat percentage is coming down with the scale number weight. Just losing "weight" could mean water weight (which you gain back as soon as you eat) or even muscle. So start measuring your body fat percentage too!

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Ultraviolet sunlight reacts with the fat in your body. If you tan alot & have a diet consisting of bad fats/junk foods/soda, free radicals will form from the sun rays, damaging your skin cells & could cause cancer. To combat this, wear sunscreen (SPF 15 or higher) & eat healthy nutrient rich high antioxidant foods (fruit, veggies & whole grains).

Diets that are high in animal fats, junk foods, soft drinks, vegetable oils, hydrogenated oils, animal/vegetable shortenings & dairy products are associated with an increased risk of skin cancer. Eating a high fat diet & spending lots of time in the sun is a bad combination.

Again, the UV rays of the sun react with the fats in your body. The end result? Free radicals form. They damage your cells & can lead to cancer. Overexposure & underprotection to sunlight may play a role but the real culprit is a diet high in fat & low in antioxidants and nutrients.

If you eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, you will be getting lots of nutrients & antioxidants, that will help prevent the formation of free radicals. This has a protective effect. Fresh, plant foods are very important in helping your body be able to handle exposure to sunlight. Antioxidants protect your skin from burning too quickly. They also prevent premature aging.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

There's three BASIC supplements EVERYBODY who exercises should be taking, no matter male or female, young or old.

MULTI-VITAMIN (We don't get enough vitamins & minerals from our food).

PROTEIN (A whey isolate protein post-exercise creates lean muscle tissue which burns more calories throughout the day).

GLUTAMINE (Combined with protein, prevents soreness & speeds up muscle recovery/building process).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Summer is ending, but swimsuit season is still in full swing with boat/beach/pool parties! To look/feel less bloated in swimsuits start watching how much sodium you're consuming; because sodium carries water in the body. Try to keep it under 1000mg/day! Eat foods high in potassium, because potassium lowers sodium levels & kicks out excess water.

Click the link to see a list of potassium rich foods. http://www.algaecal.com/potassium-rich-foods.html

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Calorie counters on cardio machines are inaccurate. So when you're doing 60+mins of cardio thinking you've burned like 800+cal, you really haven't, it's more like 300. Then you go & overindulge in food/alcohol adding to your body fat because you thought you burned so many calories with exercise. Get an inexpensive heart rate monitor so you always know exactly how many calories you're burning.

Reasons why they're inaccurate: 1) The stats you enter are age & weight. Men burn cal faster than women, so how does the machine know your gender? It doesn't. Age, gender, body fat % are all things that determine how fast you burn cal, and ...out of the three you only enter age. 2) The cardio machine is determining calories & heart rate from a predetermined math equation and by how fast it's going around (revolutions). 3) Once a machine is put into the gym it's NEVER recalibrated.

Polar is a quality brand. Their monitors range from $49-$149 depending on how sophisticated you want to get. http://www.polarusa.com/

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Alcohol is one of the quickest ways to gain body fat. Alcohol has calories, but it also stimulates the hormone cortisol which controls body fat production. Once cortisol is stimulated it begins body fat gain.

If you're gonna hit the booze hard, work those calories into your daily calorie limit and get some extra activity in addition to your exercise. Then when you're out drinking, space out your drinks. For example, have a drink, then water, then a drink, then water. Also try to cut out all the fillers (juice/soda/energy drinks) which add even more calories by just having a drink on the rocks.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Being sore after exercise is NOT a good thing! Being sore means lactic acid has built up in your muscles which slows down the muscle recovery/building process. If you're looking to lose body fat/lean & tone then slowing down that process is NOT a good thing. One of most effective ways to reduce the buildup of lactic acid & prevent soreness is to mix GLUTAMINE with your post-exercise whey protein.

What is GLUTAMINE? It's an amino acid, which are what proteins are made up of. So GLUTAMINE is nothing artificial because amino acids are already in our bodies. When added with protein GLUTAMINE speeds up the muscle recovery/building process (which normally takes 24-36hrs). Speeding up this process means you'll heal faster, which means you'll be less sore, less sore means you can exercise more, exercising more = quicker results.

All you do is take one tablespoon of GLUTAMINE, blend it with a post-exercise whey isolate protein and drink it like that after every time you exercise. You'll notice a huge difference once you start taking a whey isolate protein (see my wall for which one) & GLUTAMINE after each time you exercise.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

There are two types of protein you should be concerned about: WHEY (absorbs immediately) & CASEIN (absorbs 5-7hrs). To get results by helping to build lean muscle which burns body fat you should take a WHEY ISOLATE protein like ISOPURE after every time you exercise. For a protein to use as a snack/meal you should take CASEIN. It's a high quality protein & a much healthier substitute for Slimfast.

1 scoop of CASEIN is 120Cal, 1g of fat, 3carbs and 23g of protein.

Just mix 1 scoop with 8oz of cold water or skim milk and consume.

Depending on when you exercise determines when you should take it. If you exercise in the morning/midday you should take it one hour before bed, because the muscle recovery/building process occurs during sleep. If you exercise in the evening you should take it that morning/midday.

SIDE NOTE: Protein won't make you "bulky." Only way to get bulky is to exercise for bodybuilding (which is what most females do unfortunately) and then increasing your testosterone levels with steroids.

Again CASEIN is meant to be used as a snack/meal only once per day. The more important protein you should be taking is after you exercise which is a whey isolate protein (ISOPURE). See my wall/photos for which one is recommended & why.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Artificial stimulant fat burners like Lipo-6 & the now FDA banned Hydroxycut are not as effective as they claim, have side effects and can possibly harm you. An effective natural fat burner without side effects is made by San called LIPIDEX. It contains Omega 3, 6, 9 essential fatty acids, flaxseed oil, fish oil, and other healthy fats that help to burn bad fats.

There's a layer of tissue which sits above your fat tissue called adipose tissue. Artificial stimulant fat burners never break that first barrier of tissue. LIPIDEX since it is fat (good fat) itself it breaks through that adipose tissue and begins attacking your body fat by making the fat cells more active.

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) increase fat burning by causing your body to use stored body fat as the preferred source of energy. When this happens, carbs will be used for muscle fullness and protein is used to repair and build more muscle mass. In situations where people are deficient in EFAs, fat is not the preferred energy source. This results in catabolism, when muscle is used as energy and broken down. Carbs are also used as energy which depletes the muscle and loosens the skin. Fat, though, is pretty much left alone, so you get fatter and weaker when you don't get enough EFAs. Essential Fatty Acids basically turn your body into a fat burning inferno.

The bottle will say take 6 capsules twice daily after meals, but my recommended use of LIPIDEX is to take 3 capsules after breakfast, lunch & dinner.

***Fat burners are not meant to replace proper exercise & nutrition! They're just meant to be a nutritional aide.***

To learn more about LIPIDEX or just about healthy fats and their positive benefits go to: http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/san/lipidex.html

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Don't think of getting into shape as "8-12wk program." It's a lifestyle change. Something you have to live EVERY day. You just have to focus on staying consistent, so it becomes a part of you. Once it becomes part of your daily routine, you won't even think about it you'll just do it.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Don't measure your progress solely by what the scale says. Make sure your body fat % is going down along with the scale number, because it is possible for the scale number to go down but not your body fat % (you've lost muscle which weighs more than fat by volume).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Consuming a whey isolate (highest quality) protein after exercise will help to build LEAN muscle tissue. The more lean muscle you have the more body fat you'll burn. 1lb of muscle burns 50cal/day at rest. Muscles continue to burn calories after you're done exercising, so the more lean muscle tissue you have the more calories you'll burn per day.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Heart rate sensors/calories counters on cardio machines are inaccurate. Machines determine heart rate/calorie count from a preentered math equation & by how fast the machine is going. The machine doesn't know if you're male or female (males burn calories faster)? Usually you enter age/weight, how does it know if you're 265lbs, but only 5ft tall? Heart rate monitors are the most accurate way to know.

Age, gender, weight, height, body fat % all determine how fast you burn calories. And these are all things you enter into your monitor. Depending on how sophisticated you want to get they range from $49-$149. The brand we recommend is Polar. Visit www.polarusa.com for more info.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Many people use fat burners like Hydroxycut/Lipo-6/etc. as a quick fix to burn body fat. Truth is, they aren't as effective as they claim to be & the artificial stimulants in them can harm you. On Friday May 1, 2009, the U.S. FDA banned Hydroxycut due to it being linked to one death & because it causes an irregular heartbeat/liver failure. There's no substitute for proper exercise & nutrition!

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2009/ucm149575.htm

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

EVERY time you exercise do different exercises. Constantly change it up. This prevents boredom & forces your muscles to adapt which will get you quicker results.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Having nice abs is more than just doing ab exercises. It's doing cardio properly to be burning body fat not energy/muscle & your nutrition (staying within your daily calorie limit, avoiding foods high in saturated fat/sugars/sodium, and eating high glycemic carbs (bread/pasta/rice) ONLY after exercise).

SIDE NOTE: High glycemic carbs means they digest quickly. Since they do they should only be eaten post-exercise because with exercise you deplete your energy (glycogen) levels. Fruit & veggie carbs are low glycemic (digest slowly) so they should be eaten the rest of the day. Be careful with that... See More word "wheat." Look for lables to say "100% whole grain wheat." Just because it says "wheat" doesn't mean it's the entire wheat grain or it could even be just white bread that's died to look like wheat bread. Companies do that to trick people because of the whole health craze now with bread.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

You can speed up your metabolism (rate at which you burn calories) by weight training & eating 5-6 SMALL meals/day; eating every 2-3hrs.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Here's a video of Britney Spears being trained prior to her current Circus tour. The way she is being trained/the way she is exercising is the same way I see many females being trained or exercising on their own on a daily basis. How Britney and many of you are exercising is NOT to be lean & toned, but BODYBUILDING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNnOtAXU7f4

Doing one set of an isolated movement exercise then resting a few mins then doing another set is training for BODYBUILDING, not to be lean & toned. Why is Britney being trained this way? I don't know. It's possible her trainer does not have the proper certification or experience to know any different. Many trainers who don't have education or experience, rely on training their clients the same way they train themselves. If you look at the physique of her trainer it's obvious she is a bodybuilder/fitness competitor. The definition of her back & shoulders give it away. If any of you have seen Britney during this tour her legs & arms are huge, not lean & toned. Bottomline is, if you are being trained by someone make sure they are training you for YOUR specific goal not theirs.

Anyone looking to be lean & toned should be weight training using HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT means doing one set of an exercise, following it up with a completely different exercise no rest in between, then after the second exercise resting for 30-60sec. Repeating for 3sets.

With the second exercise you will get your heart rate up, then by resting 30-60sec it will come down, but not all the way down to resting. It'll be in your target heart rate "fat burning zones."

Example: Doing a set of lunges, followed by 30sec of pushups no rest in between, then resting 30-60sec after the pushups. Repeating this for 3 sets.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

There's no wrong time to do cardio, but the two best times: 1) As soon as you wake up before you've eaten anything. 2) After you weight train. Both times the primary calorie source your body will use to burn will be body fat (stored calories).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Are you going to do cardio & weights? Doing the weights first, then cardio will burn more body fat. With the weights you'll deplete your calories from energy (glycogen), then all that's left to burn for the cardio is calories from fat (stored calories).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Not eating for hours (i.e. 1-2 meals/day), your body goes into starvation mode.
Starvation Mode:
1) Your metabolism (rate at which you burn calories) slows down.
2) When you finally do eat, your body stores the calories as fat (stored energy).

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Strength train your ENTIRE body (lower, core & upper). Neglecting certain areas causes muscle imbalances (weaker get weaker, stronger get stronger) which can lead to injuries.