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Losing weight for women needs a high-intensity approach
Pedro Ruiz
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Pedro Ruiz. Courtesy of Vivafit
Low carb, paleo, gluten free ' diets come in many forms.
Each offers a different kind of nutrition combination. While people do lose weight on diets, once a person stops it, weight returns. Even worse, a person might become even heavier.
'You can lose weight very fast by dieting, as most Americans do,' Portugal-based Vivafit gym Chief Executive Officer Pedro Ruiz told The Jakarta Post during a recent visit to Jakarta. 'Then after losing weight, they take revenge ' and increase their weight because what they did was ruining their metabolism.
'To think that we can diet forever is impossible,' the naval architect turned fitness entrepreneur said.
Another promise often uttered by women who are trying to lose weight is a vow to join a gym and start exercising to burn fat, which Pedro dismissed. 'A gym is just a place to increase our metabolism and to get healthy' ' not to lose weight or to count calories burned, Ruiz said.
'Weird as it seems, it is impossible to lose weight in the gym. This is because your appetite increases and you are making a lot of mistakes in the gym by doing aerobics. This type of exercise doesn't make you slimmer,' he said.
'The only way to lose weight is by changing lifestyle, by exercising and eating properly ' not eating a little,' he added.
However, despite exercising and eating right, many women still having difficulties in losing weight. Ruiz says that the problem lies with motivation and discipline, which is apparently a particular problem for women, who face societal pressure, as opposed to men.
'Women's motivation to lose weight is driven by external factors. They want to look good for men. This kind of motivation does not last long. Men, on the other hand, want to work out because they want to live healthy. This motivation comes from the heart and it has nothing to do with how external parties look or judge on our bodies,' Ruiz said.
To address such problems from a different perspective, Ruiz and his American wife, Constance, founded Vivafit, a women's only gym, in 2003.
According to Ruiz, women need to achieve weight-loss targets in a scientific, comfortable and supportive environment.
There was a need, Ruiz said, 'for having a club for women who want to feel at home. They don't feel the pressure of having to look good for men and they don't feel the pressure of having men looking at them.'
For example, Ruiz said that trainers, receptionists and even the cleaners at Vivafit's gyms are all women, which will add more comfort for the members who were exercising there.
Muslim women at the gym's branches in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Saudi Arabia could exercise in more comfortable clothes than abaya, Ruiz said.
Ruiz said that the Vivafit in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, offers 30-minute exercise and workout classes that have been scientifically tested for efficiency.
'We have several workouts. The most efficient is the high intensity interval training [HIIT]. It has been proven as the most efficient. It is high intensity, which means your heart goes very fast doing it,' Ruiz said.
'Your heart goes up to 80 percent of its maximum capacity and then you decrease it for 30 seconds and then repeat for five to six sets, again and again. This really challenges your body. It makes your metabolism go up for at least eight hours after your training, during which you keep burning calories.'
A regular program of HIIT workouts could increase your metabolic rate, or how many calories your body burns, throughout the day, he adds. 'That not just when exercising. That's typing or sleeping.'
Ruiz said that embracing technology for fitness was crucial. 'Five years ago, exercise was the same as the time of the Greek Olympics. It hasn't improved much.'
'Now, with all the technology, we have been able to see what is happening in your brain with endorphins. You can see a lot of things that were not possible before. So, it's really improving the way we exercise.'
