![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/energy-expenditure-pie-chart-01.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBogged down from extreme methods, and tangled up with a few injuries, she was ready to give it another shot after a long layoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m stuck, Dre. I\u2019ve tried everything!\u201d<\/p>\n
Situations like this are not uncommon. With the advent of social media, exposure to practices with no rationale has become a concerning issue. In fact, every single time I look into what my clients have done prior, I cringe. It\u2019s certainly not a knock on them or the people they\u2019ve aligned themselves with to keep them accountable. What I\u2019m trying to convey is, we\u2019re making it more complicated than it needs to be.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to keep in mind that improving your body composition is fundamentally about consistency and discipline. Yes, it is difficult at the start. After all, meaningful changes doesn\u2019t happen overnight. But once you get a grasp of the primary tenets, you\u2019ll realize the cost of entry doesn\u2019t call for a radical shift in lifestyle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q: I\u2019m reluctant to touch the weights because I don\u2019t want to get bulky. Is it okay if I stick to cardio?<\/strong><\/p>\n A: So, let me get this straight. You think general exercise is going to ruin your appearance? Let that question sink in for a moment.<\/p>\n Prioritizing cardio and the like to shed body fat is, more or less, absurd considering all the evidence supporting that intensive aerobic workouts aren\u2019t conducive to building muscle and improving body composition.<\/p>\n Just to be clear, cardio is, in fact, important. And if that\u2019s your jam, roll with it. You can experience transient changes in your appearance. However, recognize it does little to nothing in shaping your body, particularly long term.<\/p>\n Everyone including\u2014and especially\u2014women can greatly benefit from adding strength training to the mix.<\/p>\n Q: What\u2019s the first thing you try to address when someone is struggling with fat loss?<\/strong><\/p>\n A: Most of us are aware that there has to be congruency with your training and nutrition\u2014because it\u2019s virtually impossible to attain the health and physique you desire separating both disciplines. On top of that, though, the major nuances also have to be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n A common example is sleep and daily movement. It\u2019s been well-documented that poor sleep heavily impacts body composition and performance. To put things into perspective, you\u2019re shooting yourself in the foot if you\u2019re all gung ho in the gym but only getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night. In the case of daily movement, an hour in the gym doesn\u2019t counteract a day of inactivity. In other words, move more. You\u2019d be amazed at what getting more steps can do for you.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Dre Delos Santos has spent the last six years working with people from all walks of life in Hawaii. He is a personal trainer at Gold\u2019s Gym. He is featured on fitness sites such as Weight Watchers, T-Nation, and STACK and regularly contributes to TAGA Sports. <\/em><\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Dre Delos Santos writes about fitness and nutrition for Saipan Tribune and TAGA Sports. Readers may send him questions at www.dredelossantos.com; he cannot make personal replies.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bogged down from extreme methods, and tangled up with a few injuries, she was ready…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":307541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[23565,55,67,23566],"class_list":["post-307539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-fitness","tag-dre-delos-santos","tag-health-2","tag-people","tag-stack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}