RIO Fitness Chicago® Exercise & Nutrition Blog

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

We just had the first weekend of nice weather in Chicago! If you were unhappy with cellulite showing while in that swimsuit/shorts/Summer dress, here's four simple things you can start doing TODAY to begin reducing the appearance of cellulite.

1) Avoiding/limiting saturated/trans fat completely. Cellulite is fat deposits under the skin, so the more "bad" fat you consume the more cellulite is going to collect under the skin.

2) Start consuming more "good" unsaturated fat (poly & mono) with items like unsalted/raw nuts, avocados, oily skin fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, etc.), unsalted/raw seeds, and cooking with olive or sunflower oils.

3) Start strength training three to four days per week. Strength training burns four times more calories than cardio, and keeps your metabolism high twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The most effective way to strength train to get lean & tone quickly is HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING.

HIIT Examples:

Do 60sec of walking lunges while doing dumbbell bicep curls, then with no rest in between do 60sec of side to side pushups. Then rest 60sec and repeat for three sets.

Do 60sec sit/stand on a chair/bench while doing dumbbell shoulder presses, then with no rest in between get in a pushup position and for 60sec do a jumping jack. Then rest 60sec and repeat for three sets.

Google/YouTube High Intensity Interval Training for more.


4) Four to five times per week start doing cardio properly to be burning majority calories from fat, not energy. Doing more than 30 minutes of cardio is going to be majority energy calories; more than an hour is going to burn muscle. To do cardio properly to burn majority fat calories do just 25 minutes of 60 second high then low intensity intervals of cardio.

Cardio example (treadmill):

Warm-up 60sec @ 3.0 speed
Minute 1 - Speed 5.0
Min 3 - Speed 5.0
Min 5 - Speed 5.0
Min 7 - Speed 5.0
Min 9 - Speed 5.0
Min 11 - Speed 7.0
Min 13 - Speed 7.0
Min 15 - Speed 7.0
Min 17 - Speed 7.0
Min 19 - Speed 7.0
Min 21 - Speed 9.0
Min 23 - Speed 9.0
Cool-down 60sec @ Speed 3.0

That's it just 25mins of cardio to burn body fat! All the even numbered mins (2,4,6, etc) you come down to Speed 3.0. This is just an example, adjust it to your fitness level.