Ade Rai is Indonesia’s most famous bodybuilder and a passionate advocate of good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. As a big man with a lot to say, he enjoys going against stereotypes.
Every second week he will be offering professional advice through this column.
Dear Ade Rai,
I have tried many diets over the years, and most of them never seem to work. I always end up putting the weight back on eventually. Could you give me example of how to eat healthy over the long term?
What kinds of foods should I be eating? In what quantities?
John
Jakarta
Dear John,
My latest book that comes with the audio CD Tingkatkan Fitness IQ Anda actually discusses your questions quite thoroughly. In case you find Indonesian challenging at your current level, I will summarize one of the chapters for you.
Dieting is about managing your food intake, not reducing your food intake.
I have set four criteria that everyone can follow for a healthy, consistent, and result-producing diet. They are:
Sources: Make sure your food sources:
Are low in saturated fat, sugar, flour, cream and oil.
Are rich in fiber and protein.
Consist of small amounts of whole grains and nuts.
Of the freshest and most natural foods.
Amount:
Carbohydrates: to the size of your fist at each meal.
Protein: to the size (circumference and thickness) of your palm at each meal.
Vegetables: a bowl at each meal.
Serving methods:
Make sure most of your meals are either steamed, boiled, roasted, lightly grilled or stir-fried.
Include a large variety of herbs and spices for a healthy and natural selection of flavors.
Schedules:
Make sure you do not skip your three square meals, in other words, have your meals on time.
Include two to three healthy snacks between each meal that may come from: a bowl of oatmeal with fruit, a handful of nuts, a fresh garden salad with oil and vinegar dressing, low-fat yoghurt and muesli, a protein bar or powder, or a meal replacement sachet.
Hope you find the guidelines simple and healthy. You may need a little time to get used to them.
Please stay with it long enough and I hope, in time, your body will thank you for staying with it.
Dear Ade Rai,
I have been a fan of aerobics classes for a long time. Besides being a fun thing to do, I have always been told that it is a great fat-burning activity. But after doing it for more than 10 years, I don’t seem to be losing any more weight. In fact, my weight has gone up 5 kilograms in the past six years and I only lost the weight in the first few months.
I am considering quitting, because as I get older (I am 48 years old) my hips, knees, and ankles seem to be aching every time I go to the group classes. Should I quit?
Or is there anything less strenuous that I can do? Oh, and please don’t tell me to lift weights, it’s not for me.
Nancy
Jakarta
Dear Nancy,
Thank you for your questions. Aerobics are a great way to burn fat, support heart (cardio) health, and improve lung capacity. However, there is a catch in doing it and the catch lies in our body’s innate ability to adapt to the exercise. The adaptation catch is actually a good thing, because it simply means we have improved our ability to perform the exercise.
For example, if I were to ask you to run 5 kilometers everyday for 30 consecutive days. The first few days would be the hardest because you are not accustomed to the challenge, and since it is the hardest, you would be burning a large amount of calories.
But as days go by, you adapt by becoming more efficient in performing the 5-kilometer run. By the 30th day, the 5-kilometer run will be so much easier than the first day, hence burning a lot less calories than the first days, albeit covering the same distance.
This phenomenon has gone severely unnoticed by most aerobics class-goers because they seem to get caught up in mastering aerobics choreography and “chasing the sweat”, thinking profuse sweating as a sign of burning body fat. The parameter of burning fat is through achieving a certain heart rate zone per minute called the fat-burning zone. The numbers could vary for each individual, because it is based on age.
The fat-burning zone lies between 60 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age). So in your case, your maximum heart rate is 220 minus 48, which equals 172 heartbeats per minute. Your fat-burning zone is 60 to 80 percent of 172 heartbeats per minute, which means you should be burning fat in anything that you do as long as your heart rate is between 103 and 137 beats per minute.
Years of jumping and dancing in the aerobics classes may adversely affect knee and ankle joints, causing one to slow down and burn even less calories during the same one-hour activity. Hence, in the end losing the fat-loss battle and surrendering to the fact that years of love of aerobics (and anti-resistance training) only make for aches and pains in the joints.
The first step for you to take right now is to give your joints proper treatment or therapy. You may need to see a chiropractor for a diagnosis, and then follow through with healing and recuperative treatment. To assist your recovery, you may ask your physician whether you need joint supplements containing glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, and vitamin C.
Since you only feel discomfort in your lower body joints, it does no harm to ask whether during treatment you are still allowed to do some low-to-zero impact exercise like resistance training to the upper body, combined with swimming or using cardio equipment like cross (arc) trainers, recumbent or stationary bikes, or rowing machines.
I hope you are still allowed to do the exercises I just mentioned, because I strongly feel an active lifestyle during recovery will help you prevent weight gain and maintain the cardiovascular health you have built up over the years of doing aerobics.
Last but not least, please make sure you equip yourself with a diet that is rich in nutrients but lower in calories. Make sure you have your meals on time and based on a wide variety of fresh and natural foods, increase your protein and fiber intake, as well as reduce your intake of saturated oils, flour, sugar, cream, and salt.
I wish you a speedy recovery, Nancy. Please update me on your progress.
Thank you for all the letters that have come into my inbox at ask_aderai@yahoo.com. I really appreciate the sharing of your questions and feedback. I hope every article is a positive step forward that you can act upon with consistency.
