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