Body Solutions and St. Baldrick's Foundation - Your chance to be a HERO for kids with cancer

 

Last year I heard about the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, an awesome organization that is dedicated to funding life-saving research for kids with cancer.  Yes, I said kids.  Each year around this time, thousands of Americans begin soliciting friends and family for donations in order to participate in St. Baldrick’s annual head shaving fundraising events nation-wide.

I was fortunate enough to hear about St. Baldrick’s last year to raise over $2600 with the help of many wonderful people. Although I raised the money, I didn’t have enough time to grow my hair and become an actual “shavee”.  I did, however, attend the event at Fado Pub in Buckhead, where a 9-year-old girl spoke about how she had beaten cancer and how much St Baldrick’s was a part of that success.  I can tell you that it was both heart wrenching and inspirational to hear how such a young person could survive such adversity. 

I personally have not had hair longer than an inch in over 10 years. I love my low cuts and the lack of maintenance it requires. It’s my thing.  This year I’m taking a different route.  My hair growth started two months ago and in the process, I have begun to look a bit foolish. I call it “the rag weed look”.  However, myself and the team at Body Solutions are committed to raising $5000 by March 10^th, 2010. The event will take place at Ri Ra Irish Pub, 1080 Peachtree St NE, Suite 1 (Corner of Crescent and 12^th) at 5pm. I know we can make this happen!  

Additionally, I want to extend this beyond just the walls at Body Solutions and invite others to participate with us.  I am looking to recruit a team to sacrifice with me in hopes of donating even more money to this great cause.  We are looking for at least 5 other “shavees”, those willing to shave their heads and commit to raising $1000 a piece, to join our team. If you would like to become part of the Body Solutions “Find a Cure” Team please visit https://www.stbaldricks.org/teams/bodysolutions and register!

St. Baldrick’s children don’t have the choice to “shave a little off”. We are encouraging everyone to be part of the cure and help make a difference with Body Solutions! To donate and become a hero for kids with cancer visit

www.stbaldricks.org/participants/danmcgrath .

Visit www.stbaldricks.org for more information about the organization and its outreach.

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"I'm in Love With a Loser" Valentine's Day Promotion

This Valentine's Day, Body Solutions wants you to nominate a loved one for a chance to win a three-month weight loss program with.... me!  Check out the flier and video below, then be sure to nominate your loved one over at http://www.bodysolutionsatlanta.com/!







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How to Manipulate your Metabolism

In my first Blog I spoke about how we affect weight loss by doing two things.  Decreasing the amount of calories we eat, and speeding up our metabolism.  Today I am going to write about the steps we take to speed up our metabolism.

Everybody has a “resting” metabolic rate. If you want to get all scientific it’s known as your Basil Metabolic Rate, or BMR.  What we are talking about here unscientifically is the number calories your body needs to lay down with no movement and not digesting food.  Think about this as your body on screen saver mode. Our BMR is set by our genetics, and our hormones. This is where we start.

We are going to use an example of a 35 year old woman who is 5’ 4’’ and 150 pounds and a BMR of 1486 calories. That means that if she at a 1500 calorie diet she would slowly begin to gain weight.

Luckily we can speed up our metabolism.  These are the basic factors we want to manage:

1. Move- The more we move the more calories we burn. This is the largest factor in speeding up your metabolism.  It can be as simple as parking in spots farther from the store, to doing hours of cardio.  The more you can move the more you will burn.

2. Eat more often- That is MORE OFTEN not MORE!  This step is the one that most people have the hardest time excepting.  Our body has an amazing safety mechanism to prevent us from starving, it stops burning calories.  After three to four hours your body will begin to conserve energy and cut down on the amount of calories it burns. So you want to eat every three to four hours, but still stay within your ideal category range.  YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT!

3. Create more muscle- It takes more calories to maintain lean muscle than it does to maintain fat.  The debate is out on how many calories it actually takes to maintain a pound of muscle some say 5 calories a day some say 50 to 100. Let’s be conservative and say 10 calories a day.  That doesn’t seem like much but if you can add 3 pounds of muscle to your body you will burn close to 1000 extra calories a month.  Not to shabby.

4. Drinking enough water- Drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day depending on how are will help to clean out your system and make it more efficient. It may only gain you a minimal amount of calories but in our weight loss fight every calorie counts.

If you can align these four major factors you will be a giant step ahead in the weight loss battle.

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The Inner Workings of Weight Loss

The overall goal in everyone’s weight loss battle is centered around one number… 3500. 3500 is the amount of calories that is equal to one pound of fat. So if someone sets a goal of a twenty pound weight loss then they have to find a way to get rid of 70,000 calories. 70,000 calories can seem like a huge and insurmountable number. But the process that you can go about to losing the weight is scientific and straight forward.

There are many ways to get rid of these calories but the fundamental equation is:

1. Decrease Amount of Calories Consumed
2. Speed Up Your Metabolism

 Decrease Amount of Calories Consumed

 We will use The Biggest Loser as an example of what happens when you cut back on calories because it is so extreme. People are amazed at how much weight the contestants lose their first week on the ranch, frequently seeing numbers like 15, 25, and even 35 lbs. One of the reasons that such massive amounts of weight loss are possible is because of the amount of calories that they suddenly cut out of their diet.

 Some contestants go from eating a 7000 calorie per day diet to eating a 1500 calorie per day diet. If you do the math, that is a change of 5,500 (7000 – 1500) calories per day. Multipl7 that number by seven days and you achieve a deficit of 38,500 calories! Remember we said that 3500 calories is a pound, so just by changing their diets, they have lost 11 pounds.

 In no way am I saying that people should expect to lose 10+ pounds per week under normal circumstances, but this example paints a very clear picture. By cutting out excess calories, you can begin to whittle away at the larger weight loss goal.

Speed Up Your Metabolism

 Metabolism is the chemical process that your body uses to turn food into energy for your body to use in daily functions. Everyone has a daily rate that your body uses just to conduct normal functions like keeping your heart pumping and your organs functioning. This is called your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). If your RMR is 1,000, you want to look for ways to speed up your metabolism so that you are burning additional calories per day to burn off the food you are consuming.

 There are many ways to speed up your metabolism. Some of the major methods are:

• Being more active
• Eating MORE OFTEN through out the day (more often, NOT more)
• Creating more muscle in your body
• Eating a High Fiber Diet.
• Drinking enough water through out the day

So if you can eat an appropriate amount of calories on a daily basis, lets say 1500 as an example, and you can take the proper steps to increase your metabolism to 2500 calories, every day you’re 1000 calories closer to your goal!


**Note: I will get into the specifics of metabolism in future postings, so stay tuned for more in depth information about the above suggested methods and how to measure metabolic rates.


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Hello internet – Welcome to my blog!

My name is Dan McGrath and I am the general manager of Body Solutions Weight Loss + Health, a results-driven weight loss studio in Buckhead.

Through working in the fitness world for six years and having been involved in sports training since I was 12 years old, I’ve developed a signature approach to helping people achieve their goals. The foundation of my approach is empowering clients with knowledge. I firmly believe that if you give people solid, credible information by which to base decisions, they will be exponentially more successful. I’ve coached hundreds of clients over the years and have heard more crazy fitness myths than I can count on my hands (and toes!), so the point of this blog is to empower YOU and help debunk the fact and fiction of health.

I also feel that it is very important to have fun and laugh your way to achieving your goals. With that being said, in addition to health and fitness tidbits, I will also sprinkle in some humorous observations and stories I’ve gathered over the years. For example, in this blog I feel the need to explore such topics as: proper gym etiquette, unexplainably ridiculous gym outfits (did you look in a mirror before leaving the house?) and caveman grunting sounds men use to seem strong (..when, in fact, they are curling 2.5 lb weights).

The goal of this blog is to be both informative and entertaining. I want everyone who reads to feel like they can make better decisions about their health (or clothing choices!), have a chuckle and realize that the world of health does not have to be as intimidating as people make it out to be.


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