A great, simple, and proven way to accurately measure your body fat percentage and Weight Loss and Fat Loss progress.[/caption] As a BUFFALO PERSONAL TRAINER, the majority of our clients come in because they want to LOSE WEIGHT. Their goal is WEIGHT LOSS. One of the first things that we have to teach our clients is that it's not about WEIGHT LOSS! It's about FAT LOSS! There is a huge difference! So, why do clients want to lose weight? I ultimately believe it's because they really want to FEEL BETTER! If they LOSE WEIGHT they're going to feel better. As a Buffalo Personal Trainer, at the end of the day our product is really FEEL GOOD! I heard that from Mike Boyle, Living Legend and Strength Coach of the Boston Bruins among other things. I couldn't agree more. We help people FEEL BETTER and that's why they keep coming back! We have worked countless hours to create a proven system based on science and the best practices in Fitness and Medicine today that really helps people Feel Better, Look Better, Move Better, and to Perform Better in the crazy, intense game of life. But now, back to WEIGHT LOSS, which is really FAT LOSS and is what most of your clients want. In my opinion, the scale is actually an incredibly useless tool to measure your health or fitness level. If you have a scale, I recommend that you throw it out and never weigh yourself again. The problem is if you Lose Weight, you don't know if you have lost fat or muscle. I can assure you that 99% of the time if you have lost mostly muscle, you're going to gain all of that fat and weight back and most likely more. I know a woman who started doing cardio like crazy because she wanted to look fantastic for her wedding. She did like 90 minutes on the elliptical machine every single day for 6 months. She lost a lot of weight but, like countless other people she also lost a lot of muscle which sabotaged her FAT LOSS efforts in the long term. She did gain all of the weight and fat back again as she went through the Yo-Yo journey that so many have gone through, particularly women. It's actually a proven scientific fact that Steady State Cardio which includes treadmills, walking, elliptical machines, bikes, arc trainers, step masters, running, and just about every other Cardio Machine on the Cardio Deck in your local Big Box Gym are literally and truly the least effective way to lose fat. This is not an opinion. It is a scientific fact that is well known among experts in the Fitness / Sports Medicine Community. It's so unfortunate that most people start exactly there. It's even more unfortunate that paid Trainers start them there. I'll get more into that in future blogs as I have written and am refining a Lecture Series titled "How to LOSE FAT and GET LEAN by EATING SMART and TRAINING SMART!" Fat Loss is really simple. The biggest problem is that there is so much bad information out there. Ugh!!! It really bothers me! This quick blog is not about How to Lose Fat. I will get there but, not today. It is about measuring Body Fat Percentage. When I first started as a Buffalo Personal Trainer, I bought Electronic Skin Fold Calipers. I was so proud! I bought them brand new and the most expensive set that you could buy. The National Academy of Sports Medicines Certified Personal Trainer Course textbook dedicated a section to teach us how to properly measure body fat percentage using the Calipers. For a variety of reasons, I have found them to be highly inaccurate. I'm now trying to sell them on CraigsList. I was disappointed the Skin Fold Calipers didn't really give me an accurate way to measure Body Fat Percentage as a tool to measure productive Weight Loss and true Fat Loss. So I kept searching for a solution. I spoke to other Fitness Professionals, went to other gyms, asked people on Facebook, googled, looked every where I could etc... There is a lot of junk out there. I tried the whole Bioelectric Impedance thing and found it to be very inaccurate. There are even $5,000 machines that gyms own that are really clearly inaccurate. I kept searching because I wanted a clear, quantitative, objective way that our clients could measure their results or lack thereof. I wanted a grade on my team's performance. I wanted a number! A real number. A real result! I have found one. Many of my customers are executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals and they really like bottom line numbers. I've worked hard to deliver. I've read numerous articles and the vast majority all agree. My research is pretty much summed up in this article that you can link to: WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO MEASURE BODY FAT? It turns out that there are really only 3 generally accepted and non-controversial ways to get an accurate measurement of Body Fat Percentage. None are perfect but, some are far better than others. The best are the following: Hydrostatic Weighing, The Bod Pod (Air Displacement Plethysmography), and DEXA Scan. These machines cost literally tens of thousands of dollars which makes impractical for most Gyms, Buffalo Personal Trainers, Weight Loss Center, Fitness Centers, etc... to own and use regularly. I made the decision that unless I could give an accurate number I wan't going to use Body Fat Percentage as a tool. I'm pleased and excited to announce that TrainSMART Personal Fitness is now offering Air Displacement Plethysmography otherwise known as the Bod Pod to our clients as an option. Click BOD POD to learn more about the Bod Pod and why the Bod Pod was the Exclusive tool used at the NFL Scouting Combine to measure Body Composition. As pleased as I am to be able to offer this testing to our clients, I believe there are still other very simple ways to measure true results. These ways include measuring your waist, thighs, arms, and what size jeans you fit into. However; our clients are generally as serious about Fitness as we are and they want to really be able to measure their results with precision. I'm glad we have this as a great tool! If you would like to make arrangements to measure your Body Fat Percentage with the Bod Pod please call us today at (716) 650 0535 and we can set up an assessment for you! To Learn More About This BUFFALO PERSONAL TRAINER please visit our main website at: www.trainsmartbuffalo.com Sincerely, Joe Fox
