Fitness Question: Hey Rocco, I’m 5′9, and weigh in at 171 and have a body fat ratio of 36% but I find that number very hard to believe. Just this spring I took my body fat with a near-infared light body fat tester and I was at 22%.

I’ve been trying to read up on the healthiest and best way to lose body fat, gain muscle AND lose weight but everything I read tells me something different. I’m not seeing much of a weight change but I am feeling muscle tightness everywhere.

I eat 6 small meals a day (even though I’m not sure how many calories each meal should be). I try to fit protein and carbs into 3 main meals.

I work out 5-6 days a week doing resistance training every other day (cardio as a small warm up those days) and at least 45 min of cardio on the opposite days.

Am I doing this right? Some places tell me too much cardio will eat up the muscle I’m trying to build; other places tell me cardio is the key to weight loss.

- I’m so confused.

Rocco’s Answer: Of course you’re confused! That’s the way it’s supposed to be. If you weren’t than the marketers of all the sh*@ you see on TV wouldn’t be in business. They keep you dazed and confused so your pockets can be picked for three easy payments of $39.95. I’ll try to answer your questions in the Reader’s Digest version of askROCCO.

When you get your body fat measured, only use one source and go to that same source for all your updates. If you use different people or different apparatus, you will get different results.

If you weigh 171 pounds, figure out where you want to be and take in that weight plus a 0 in calories per day. If you are exercising consistently add 400 calories to that number.

Let’s say you want to be 150 lbs. You should then be taking in 1,500 plus 400 to equal 1,900 calories per day. This leads into the next answer. If you are supposed to be taking in 1,900 calories then each main meal should be 433 calories, give or take and your middle meals or snacks should be no more than 200 calories.

With regard to your workout, you’re doing way too much cardio. Our bodies were not meant to perform sustained movements. These long duration workouts do nothing but create efficiency in energy (fat) use. In other words, the body gets used to it and doesn’t burn as much fat any more.

Why do cars get 35 mpg hwy and 15 mpg city? You guessed it! The start and stop, or acceleration and stopping, causes you to burn more gas. The same thing goes for your body. This start and stop method in the fitness world is called “interval training”. If the rest of the trainers out there would get their heads out of their butt and do the research there wouldn’t be millions of people occupying treadmills, elliptical and exercise bikes for hours upon hours upon friggin’ hours.

Interval training can be done by walking for 2 minutes, then running as fast as you can for 2 minutes, walking for 2 minutes, and running for 2 minutes and so on. You’ll expend more calories in 15 minutes than you did in the 45 you’ve been doing.

I’ll have examples of interval training in the Exercise Video section of the site soon.

This was posted to http://tftj.com on May 24, 2008