Adequate hydration or water consumption is a very important part of any beauty queen’s diet and fitness program. Your body is reliant on water and proper hydration to perform all of the chemical reactions it needs to provide efficiency to each system.

You could last without food (fuel) for more then 10 days. You couldn’t last more then 24 hours without water. Water also plays a very important role in weight loss. Without adequate water supply to your body it would not be able to utilize the necessary energy systems to burn fat to it fullest potential. Watch the video and listen to Rocco explain the virtues of water and adequate hydration.

It has come to my attention through the hundreds of e-mails I get during the week that I need to address what the diet companies research is saying. With so many diet companies making real and/or outrageous claims what can you really believe.

Some companies quote studies that don’t even have anything to do with human beings. how can these quoted studies be accurate? Registered dietitian Jayson Hunter and I discuss what is really going on in the research. Watch the video to find out more about how the research applies to you and your diet.

Question: I’m hoping you may help please?! Here’s my story:

I put on around 30lbs in order to have a breast enlargement this year as I was underweight. I have had surgery in March and since the 6 weeks after managed to loose around 12lbs and 12 and a half inches all over plus 5% body fat…….BUT I still feel fatty and am desperate to get rid of this fatty look. Please don’t confuse this. I am not and don’t look fat, I am slim but how can I tone up more and keep on loosing these inches and body fat % ? I work my whole body and do cardio 5 times a week and eat healthy. I was wondering if I should focus on core training for my middle area a few weight for the rest and hammering the cardio?

Thanks alot!
Tracey

Answer: You have several issues happening here and most of them aren’t good. If you needed to gain weight in the first place it should have been muscle and not fat. I’m assuming from what you told me that you didn’t gain much muscle and if that’s the case, you still need to build muscle and NOT hammer cardio. If you started out thin and gained fat too quickly you basically threw a big slab of FAT onto a really small fire with no way to burn it. In order to burn fat you need to build much more muscle than you have. Your body is keeping the fat where it is because you are supposed to be a certain “weight” but your body has kept the fat which looks flabby because that’s the only thing it has to work with at the moment. DO NOT hammer “cardio”, because cardio will actually cause your body to breakdown muscle for energy. Cardio or aerobic training is only good when you have sufficient muscle mass on your body.

Your question about working your core is a question I get all the time that also relates to muscle deficiency. Working the core itself will not eliminate that fatty look; you need to workout the whole body so that it is balanced. For example; if you work your back and chest muscles and build muscle in those areas, that muscle will fill the saggy skin that gravity has helped to make look flabby.

Look in the upper right hand corner of this blog and you can instantly receive a workout and ohter helpful e-books to take you on a success pageant fitness journey.  Go there now and start creating the body you always wanted.

Question: I have around 100 pounds to lose. I am questioning the best way to start a program with so much weight to drop. I have never tried to lose weight before and I am ready. I am turning 30 next month and I am only 4 feet 10 inches. My main concern is what will happen to my skin when I start dropping weight. I don’t have to money to surgically remove the extra skin. Can you help me?

- Future Beauty Queen

Answer: Have you ever heard the anecdote: How do you eat an elephant?… One bite at a time. Well that’s the way you need to lose fat. Take bites out of the fat and do not worry about how much you have to lose.

The number 100 alone is over whelming when dealing with anything even if you liked to do it. If I told you to go run 100 miles, would you be able to do it?…probably not. How about eat 100 cupcakes…maybe you would try, but again…probably not. Riding 100 miles on your bike?…probably, not.

Now if I told you that it was a cumulative goal and you would only have to walk, eat, ride only five of whatever you needed to do, it would be much easier to accomplish. We as a society take on too much and expect it now… fuggettaboutit… it’s not going to happen.

Set a plan up that allows you to perform full body strength training movements, throw in some interval training and exercise portion control and you can plan on 1.3 pounds of body fat shedding your body each week. Think about it in 6 week intervals and set each six week goal to lose 7.8 pounds and in one year you will have lost 67.6 pounds.

I’m not saying all this is easy but it is easier to digest losing 7.8 pounds every 6 weeks than worrying about 100 pounds that will never come off because you view it as a mountain to high to climb.

Question: I am in the process of losing weight and gaining muscle through diet and exercise, and I’ve already made huge strides. However, the one area of my body that I’m not losing inches on are my calves.

I know they are mostly muscle rather than fat (judging by the “pinch test”), and I’ve always had larger calves (I think it may be genetic). But I’d like them to be strong and still look feminine and shapely rather than stocky. Any suggestions?

Rachael

Answer: There are a couple of problems with your question and goals. If you were fat for a number of years and you walked around on your legs and not someone else’s than your calves would have been involved in that walking. The heavier you are the more work your calves would be doing and the larger and stronger they would become. It’s a basic overload principle scenario.

You happen to have two sets of muscles that are the densest muscles in your body, one is your forearms and the other is your calves. The denser the muscle the less likely it will get smaller, especially if you’re still walking around all the time. You would literally have to stop walking around on your two feet for your calves to reduce in size and that’s probably not likely. Well, unless you are rich enough to have servants carry you around and be at your beck and call. If that’s the case then what the hell are you asking me this question for.

So I can assume you don’t have servants, so the answer would be to create and optical illusion. In order to create this optical illusion you need to build your lower quadriceps (the muscles over your knee). Leg extensions for between 20-25 reps will build this area, balance out your leg and make your calves look smaller. You won’t lose the muscle and you will be creating a more stable knee joint. See, you win all around.