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October 2008: Losing Weight Is As Easy As Second Grade Math!
One of the most frequent questions that I get asked on a daily basis is “what can I do to lose weight?” My answer is “it’s all simple mathematics”. If you want to maintain your current weight, you have to eat the same number of calories you burn.
Losing weight while being able to engage in normal daily activity is like emptying a gas tank. When you are trying to empty your gas tank, don’t keep filling it up. Simply put, find your daily calorie expenditure for your body to function and only eat that amount of food calories. Then exercise to burn the extra body fat.
When you go on extreme DIEts you are killing your body. Depriving the body of its proteins and other important nutrients will cause irregular heart beat, heart failure, muscle weakness and even death. We need food, like a car needs gas to get around. With the formula below you can lose weight in a healthy manner from eating the adequate amount of calories and exercising.
The first part of the equation is getting a rough estimate on how many calories you need.
The Harris-Benedict Equation will give a good ballpark figure of how many calories you need a day or your daily energy expenditure. You use energy no matter what you're doing, even when sleeping. This formula will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories that your body needs to function.
For Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 × weight in kg) + (5 × height in cm) – (6.8 × age in years)
For Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 × weight in kg) + (1.8 × height in cm) – (4.7 × age in years)
Once you’ve calculated your BMR, multiply it by your activity factor to get the Daily Calories Needed (DCN):
Sedentary: BMR × 1.2
Moderately active: BMR × 1.55
Very active: BMR × 1.725
Using the Harris Benedict formula, an active 30-year-old woman who weighs 70 kg (154 lbs) and is 170 cm (5'7") tall would need to consume:
BMR= 655 + (9.6 × 70) + (1.8 × 170) – (4.7×30) = 1492
DCN (Daily calories needed to maintain same weight) = 1492 × 1.55(Moderately active) = 2238 calories
If you are trying to lose weight, do not eat more food calories than this number.
In order to lose weight, Mystics Team Physician Dr. April Barbour recommends consuming up to 500 less calories a day than the DCN. The healthiest way to do this is by exercising more to burn 500 more calories daily. Generally with this formula you should see a 1-2 pound weight loss a week while gaining strength, cardiovascular endurance and a good energy level throughout the day without stressing your vital organs.
Personally I am a big fan of strength training/weight training incorporated with cardiovascular/aerobic exercise. For example, you can walk up and down stairs for 5 mins and then do a set of 10 pushups. Continue this routine for 2-3 times and then follow up with another exercise. This type of cross training will not only work your cardiovascular system it will also strengthen your body.
The main thing you have to do when exercising and trying to lose weight is to be consistent on your exercising. You have to stress the heart to 65% or above you max heart rate (MHR). But, for regular exercisers, the typical way we calculate MHR is with the Kievelan formula. This formula is a bit controversial because it doesn't reflect the differences in heart rate according to age. A more accurate formula is described in a study published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Journal in May 2007. However, this Karvoen formula is still effective for recreational purposes.
Kievelan formula:
220- Age = Max Heart rate.
For example, a 25 year old’s max heat rate would be 220-25= 195
65% of that number (127) is the target heart rate to workout.
At the end of the day, the goal should to eat only the amount of calories that are calculated as your DCN. If you know that it’s a day that you would not be able to exercise, you might want to cut out that 400 calorie apple muffin or drinking the cola can. If you don’t burn those calories it will get stored up and you will GAIN 1-2 pounds a week.
I am a big believer in eating nutritionally valued food. Don’t just eat donuts to get your calorie content or to scratch your hunger. Eat nutritious snacks such as bananas that will give you a good source of vitamins, fiber, and etc. It’s just like filling up your nice car with cheap gas or putting poor quality oil; it will take its toll on the long run. So no matter if you want to maintain, lose or gain weight, your numbers have to match.
September 2008: The Best And Cheapest Massage In Town
People always ask me about new technology or any miracle therapy machinery that the Wizards or Mystics use to cure our athletes. As a clinician, one of most effective tools that I have been using in our training room for the past few years is the Foam Roller. With the Mystics, we use the foam roller prior to practice as a part of our warm up to improve tissue quality, increase the pliability of the tissue and to release the trigger points. This improves flexibility, function, performance and reduces injuries. Our athletes use the foam roller again after practice as a part of our cool down. During this regeneration phase, the foam roller helps re-circulate lactate acid and aid in quicker recover time. A form roller is an incredibly effective tool that everyone can use in their own living room.
A joint is unable to move though the full range of motion with tight or restricted muscles. This is the main cause of muscle injuries. Tight and restricted muscles also put unnecessary stress to the joints. One of the things that I check daily with our players is the "timing"/ muscle firing patterns. This is known as the neuromuscular efficiency. If the "timing"/muscle firing pattern is not synced it would lead to micro trauma of the muscle skeletal system and poor performance on the court. With the use of the foam roller you will be able to diminish soft-tissue tension, decreases pain, restores normal muscle length-tension relationships, and improves function.
To give you an example, before a NASCAR race, the mechanics make sure all the belts in their car are working precisely. One minor fault in a belt would jeopardize the car's performance in a 500mile race. This is very similar to our athletes playing 40minutes or you going for a 20minute walk. Minor muscle fault could jeopardize the performance or could lead to injuries. By using the foam roller under the guidance of your healthcare practitioner, you will be able to minimize or eliminate most of the muscle restriction in the soft tissue system. First you need to get the guidance from your healthcare practitioner before using the Foam Roller. He/she will be able to show you the necessary techniques, good posture and frequency of use. Therefore, using the Foam Roller a few minutes a day will enable you to keep your muscles working to perfection. You could also use a tennis ball to get similar results.
The pictures to the rightshow two of the most frequently used positions by the Mystics players. The first exercise is for the Latissimus dorsi muscle and the other is for the calf muscle.
August 2008: Basketball Running Form
One of the training techniques that I try to emphasize with the Mystics is proper running form. The correct running form will make the athlete very efficient and economical while minimizing overused injuries. Efficiency enables the athlete to get from point A to B fast with no wasted motion. Economy enables the athlete to use the least amount of energy to get from point A to B.
Elite sprinters are known for their efficient motion. They are very quick off the ground and they rapidly fire their feet to the ground with consistency – similar to a “piston” in a car. Newton's law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Similarly, what you put in to the ground is what you get out of it. A runner exerts a force in to the ground and this creates an equal and opposite reaction force which moves the body over the ground.
The Basketball court is about 30 meters (90 feet) long. Therefore basketball players are always in driving posture accelerating from one end to the other end and then decelerating and changing direction.
During the accelerating mode, these are some of the proper postures I focus on:
July 2008: The question I get asked all the time is "Should I stretch before exercising?"
If you do not stretch, the muscles do not have the full range of motion and will stress the joints and the tendons around them. You have to make sure that the muscles are capable of functioning independently without stressing joints or tendons. For example, a tight calf could be cause of plantar facilitates or Achilles tendon pain.
The best way to prevent injuries is to ensure that every muscle in your body is capable of going to its full range of motion pain-free. An article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that can stretching can significantly increase tendon elasticity. These findings have important clinical implications for the treatment and prevention of tendon injuries.
The research included in the Sports Medicine Review Journal show that certain stretching techniques and protocols have shown a positive outcome on deterring injuries. As a result, a warm-up and stretching protocol should be implemented prior to physical activity. The routine should allow the stretching protocol to occur within the 15 minutes immediately prior to the activity in order to receive the most benefit.
So, next time before you head out of the house for a long run make sure your muscles are "elastic" and not "plastic". There is no 'give in' in plastic, elastic muscles will adapt and endure the strain and stress put on by exercising.
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