Tag Archives: added sugar

Is Sugar Hampering Your Exercise Results?

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Read nutrition labels to spot added sugarYou are working out every day at Koko FitClub. You are healthier and your body is responding to the regular exercise with extra energy and strength when you need it most. Love it, but…

What are you putting into your body?

Even if you are not actively counting calories and just aspiring to “eat healthier,” a relatively easy (and often eye opening) habit to adopt is monitoring  your daily sugar consumption.  As a country, we consume a lot of sugar, and much has been written recently about its toxicity and addictive qualities. If you rein in your added sugar consumption, you will truly maximize the benefits of  your Koko Smartraining workouts.

Sugar can come in two forms – natural and added. Natural sugar can be found in fruits and the milk you drink. What I want you to keep a watchful eye on is the added sugar that is found in just about everything else you consume on a daily basis. Often they are sneaky – listed with names like “high fructose corn syrup,” “dextrose,” “sucrose,” etc.

*Warning* – you will be shocked to see how much added sugar is in the food you’re eating and the soda and fruit drinks you’re drinking! An average American adult consumes 92 grams (almost 400 calories) of added sugar each day.

Experiment with this for a week or two: look for the grams of sugar on ALL food/drink labels. Women, keep your daily amount of added sugar under 100 calories/25 grams a day. Men, keep your daily amount of added sugar under 150 calories/38 grams a day.

After this exercise, you won’t want to go back to your days of blind sugar consumption!

You can do this! If you have soda, sports or fruit drinks on a daily basis, just cutting these out of your regular diet will significantly cut down on both your sugar consumption and daily calories. ( The average person drinks about 450 liquid calories a day!)  It is one of the simplest changes you can make to boost your Koko workout results. And an easy rule-of-thumb for label reading? If the ingredient list is long and full of things that require a chemistry degree to translate, (including various forms of hidden sugar,) just put it back on the shelf.

Getting your sugar intake under control will pay off big when combined with your Smartraining workouts. Don’t be surprised if you get a better view of all that new muscle you’ve gained by losing a few pounds or inches from your waist like I have!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

Koko FitClub Franchising

 

Simple Smartraining Tips for Fitness Success

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Fitness. Figured out.

1. Complete three strength and four Koko Cardio sessions per week.

When your monthly Koko progress report arrives in your inbox next Tuesday morning, check to see if you have a minimum of 12 strength and 16 cardio sessions for the month of April. If you do, you are getting the CDC/WHO/Surgeon General recommended 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise to decrease your risk of developing several nasty, chronic diseases.

2. Get active and have fun outside of Koko FitClub.

Why get in shape if you don’t enjoy that improved fitness? You’d be amazed how quickly riding bikes with your kids, walking the dog or digging in your garden logs a ton of extra “active” time to your week. This weekend I plan to be working in my yard for a few hours and going for a two hour hike on Sunday. All of a sudden my 150 minutes of Smartraining turns into seven hours of activity! Seven hours of activity a week is a magic number that not only off-sets a sedentary day job, but also cuts my risk of dying prematurely by 40% compared to folks who exercise only thirty minutes a week.

3. The Smartraining “Three Rep Rule.”

If a weight feels too light or too heavy during your next Koko strength workout, (not a strength test,) you can perform three fewer or three additional reps than what the Smartrainer suggests for you and it will trigger an automatic weight adjustment for the next set. If the weight is too heavy, three fewer reps will trigger a lighter suggested weight next set. If it’s too light, three extra reps will trigger a higher weight next set.

4. Mix up your cardio routine.

No matter how much you LOVE the “Mt. Diablo” treadmill hike, don’t do it every time. Think variety and progression with your cardio. If you are comfortably working at the same intensity level every session, try the next level up and see how you do. (You can always make adjustments if it feels too difficult.) Do you have a favorite piece of equipment?  Forsake it every other session. You will get much more benefit by alternating between treadmill and elliptical. Bottom line, it’s best to mix it up – different intensities, different programs and different equipment.

5. Improve your pace score to improve your Q-Score.

Has improvement in your Koko Q-Score stalled even though you are working out consistently? Remember – Q-Score is a pace adjusted strength to weight ratio. Next strength test, really focus on getting the best pace score you can on the last, heaviest set for each of the four exercises in your strength test. Can’t get a decent pace score on that last set? Do fewer reps, recognizing that it is ok to stop as soon as your pace score starts to slip.

6. Reduce the amount of added sugar in your diet.

Over the next two to three weeks, work on cutting down your consumption of added sugar and you will lose body fat around your abdominal area. Your total added sugar intake should stay under 25 grams/day for women and 38 grams/day for men.  Of course, foods have natural sugar, that’s not what I’m asking you to avoid. Read food labels to watch for “added sugar.” It can come in the form of high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, brown rice syrup, etc. If you are consistent with your Koko workouts and follow this added sugar rule, you’ll really notice the change in your waistline. (I have over the last three weeks!)

These simple changes can have a big impact if you keep at them consistently. Let me know how it goes!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

Koko FitClub Franchising

 

Choose Foods with Less Sugar & See Better Workout Results

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Koko Nutrition lableYou are consistently getting yourself to Koko and doing your Smartraining workouts 2 to 3 times a week, and that’s awesome.  But as you have heard me say many times during your Koko Cardio sessions: If your goal is to lose weight, exercise is only part of the equation. You must also control caloric intake. So, I strive to give you hype-less nutritional tips that, when combined with regular exercise at Koko FitClub, will help you control intake and have a tremendously positive effect on your health and fitness.

Today’s tip is about one of the most insidious sources of empty calories in our diets every day: sugar. Paying attention to food labels and monitoring your food choices to exclude those with excessive added sugar will make a big dent in your daily caloric intake resulting in your calorie burning efforts at Koko being even more effective.

My question to you: Do you have any idea how much sugar (simple carbohydrate) you’re taking in on a daily basis? Most people don’t. Your first assignment is to start reading food labels to get an idea of the sugar content in the foods you eat on a regular basis.

“If you are concerned about your intake of sugar, make sure that added sugars are not listed as one of the first few ingredients. Other names for added sugars include: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, and maple syrup.” (source: FDA website).


A healthy diet should have about 45-65% of its calories in the form of carbohydrates  (simple and complex sugars) with the remaining calories coming from fat and protein. Unless you are extremely active, your optimum carbohydrate intake should be toward the bottom edge of that range. This carbohydrate percentage is broken out further into simple vs complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrate intake, which is the category of sugar we are talking about today, should make up less than 25% of your overall caloric intake each day. More on simple and complex carbohydrate can be found here and here.

Read labels and you will be amazed at how much sugar is in products you think of as “healthy.” Start with your breakfast. You’ll quickly discover that with foods like cereal, juice and fruit flavored yogurt on the menu, it’s easy to reach your sugar limit for the day by breakfast. Remember sugar can “hide” under other names. Look for those words ending in “ose” as your eyes wander down the ingredient list.

One final thought. Every food choice counts. Start taking time to read food labels and simply choose foods with less added sugar. With very little effort you will lop some serious calories off the “intake” side of your equation. Combined with Koko, the result will be a fitter, trimmer you!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub