The Idaho Statesman
Article by: Dana Oland
Edition Date: 03-30-2003 If you´re like me, you´re always looking for something to change your life. Or at least make it better. That´s why I own many books on feng shui, a large selection of essential oils and a powdered clay that´s supposed to raise my vibrational energy (really) when I drink it. Imagine my delight when I heard about a machine that would make it possible for me to lose weight and get in tip-top shape. Go Judy Jetson! Sign me up. Normally, I avoid doing stories that could lead to the headline “Pudgy reporter tries to get in shape” or require me to print my weight. But I´m desperate. I´m 43 and trying to reconcile the idea that I may never be a size 6 again. (Not that that´s a bad thing. I think I can be happy as an 8.) In the end, the offer was too tempting to resist. It´s all about the new, portable technology that´s available based on the big machines Olympic athletes use to train. All I had to do was breathe into a tube hooked up to the New Leaf Personal Exercise Program, said Miki Rudd, co-owner of Body Basics, Inc., a personal training gym, where I took the test. The results would tell me my exact fitness level and how my body´s metabolism works. Then I would get a little computer to strap on, called a Personal Digital Coach, that keeps me focused and working out the right way. “It will change your life,” Miki said. I had a lot of questions. So, here I go: ’Pudgy reporter tries to get in shape’ This has been a lifelong struggle for me. I was obsessed with being thin even before I started my first career as a dancer. I had this goal of weighing 120 pounds. I think I picked it up from some Cosmo interview with a model. I did reach it for a while and then some. But then I felt so bad. I´d start eating and gain the weight back. Then I´d stop eating again. I´m 5-foot 7-inches tall. The least I´ve weighed as an adult was 114 pounds, the most 180. Go figure. Now, today I should probably weigh around 137 pounds. So at 145, I´m not far from that goal. But I have other goals. Now, I want to eat better so I have more energy. I´m tired of being tired. I want to increase my lean body mass and reduce my fat so I don´t jiggle so much. So, let´s see how I´m going to get there. Twice tested Early on a Saturday morning two weeks ago, I arrived at Body Basics, sleepy and totally caffeine deprived. I had fasted the night before so my system was free of stimulants that might interfere with the test. I recommend the early morning test time. It makes the after-test latte that much more enjoyable. The first part was easy. I lay down on a heated massage table wearing a blue neoprene mask. Then I breathed into a tube hooked up to a computer that measured my exhalation. This test was to tell me my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Basically that´s how I metabolize food and how many calories I need to live. As I relaxed there — the machine humming along — I started thinking: ´How should I write it?´ ´What photos should …´ “Stop thinking,” Miki said. How did she know? Any thought caused a spike on the test that changed the results. Thinking photos — spike; dog walk — spike; Where will I get coffee? —spike. Talk about mind-body connection! Miki said it takes some people longer to relax than to actually take the 10 minute test. Time to wake up. A yawn and stretch as I struggled to wake my body up and go to the next room. Time for the “VO2 Submax Metabolic Test” (deep announcer´s voice in my head). It sounds ultra Jetson, but it´s basically a stationary bicycle. I strap on another mask with a bigger tube. Now I feel space age. This was more difficult. Like a test-gerbil on a wheel — or at least a stationary bicycle — I went at it. This test will tell me how my heart responds to exercise and where my anaerobic threshold is. That´s where my body stops using oxygen less efficiently. It started out easily, then every minute and a half Miki pushed the buttons that took the bike up a level. I don´t usually ride the bike at this level. My thigh muscles started straining. My heart was pounding. I was breathing much harder. I was even sweating between my fingers. It had only been 10 minutes. So, two tests, 20 minutes. My results shocked me. Now I have to learn a new concept of fitness. Results will vary The program prints out a handy graph that illustrates my metabolism. Lightly colored lines spike up and down across the page with numbers running up and down the sides. At the beginning I was burning fat just fine, but as the test continued, my fat-burning plunged, and I started burning carbohydrates. But here´s the real shocker. After years of thinking the only way to lose weight was to workout hard and eat less, I find out I´m not eating enough food to lose weight. I thought I was doing fine. I´m eating about 1,200 calories a day. I think I got that number from Cosmo, too. It turns out, according to the test, it takes 1,308 calories for me to just exist. So, 1,200 won´t cut it. In fact, I need to eat 1,500 calories to lose weight because even typing burns calories. Eat more to lose weight? It sounds crazy. “You don´t want to lose weight, you want to lose fat,” Miki said. “We have to do a lot of educating, because we all have this diet mentality. Calories are really misunderstood.” Calories are fuel, she explained. If your caloric intake is too restrictive, your metabolism slows down. So instead of burning fat, I burn immediate energy reserves and lean body mass before the icky fat we all want to lose. More calories doesn´t mean add a McDonald´s hamburger to your day. It means eating the balanced diet you know (and love?) but hate to eat. Two women the same age, weight and height can take the test and get completely different results, Miki said. “No two people have the same DNA, the same fingerprints or the same metabolism,” she said. If those two women are eating the same number of calories, one could be eating too few, the other too many. Eat 100 calories too many a day and you gain a pound a month. Eat 100 too few and your body begins to hold onto fat for survival. Either way, it´s not healthy, Miki said. Exercise? OK. So, this part is not so easy. My Jetsons miracle actually demands I work out with more concentration and consistency and more often. Here´s where Miki becomes right. If I do this, it will change my life. Not only will I need to spend more time thinking about and preparing food, I´ll need to spend more time exercising. The results of the VO2 Submax showed me where my heart rate should be to burn fat and to build my cardio stamina. Both were lower than I had been working. So not only do I need to eat more food, I need to ease up and work out more slowly and consistently. The workout Miki suggested for me includes four days at 40 minutes of fat burning (heart rate between 120 and 138) and two days at 40 minutes of cardio (heart rate between 138 and 154). I thought that was a horrendous amount of time. Then with my Personal Digital Coach strapped on, I found that I could hit my fat-burning zone on my daily dog walk. It also tells me exactly how many calories I burned. A 50-minute dog walk = 309 calories. So, that´s easy. Four dog walks a week is doable. One pound of body fat equal 3,500 calories. I just have to dog walk 11 times to lose that. Then it´s just two days in the gym working on cardio and weights. I´ve been at this about a week and seem to be going all right. I love the computer coach. Even though his voice is less than sincere, I appreciate the occasional “You´re doing great!” message. And I love knowing where my heart rate is. Dietwise, I´m doing better. I´m eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and a few healthy snacks. And so far, when I follow the exercise program, I´m actually hungry enough to eat what I need. But it´s just been a week. I know how hard it is for me to stay consistent, and I don´t have children or family obligations. So, we´ll see if my life changes. If the New Leaf System has a flaw, it´s that it depends on you to do the work and make the changes. At least this way, I figure, I´m not lost in the dark. | 
