Ken Larkman can be found on many of the on-line discussion lists

I always wondered why I didn't lose weight when I was training karate up to 8 hours a week. Finally, I broke down and joined Weight Watchers. The program worked but it was going so slowly and finally it stopped working all together. Then, I spoke to another WW participant a friend of mine who trains with weights and she clued me into a lot of interesting stuff.

Changing one's diet is definitely a primary factor in weight loss. Reducing fatty foods (like pizza) and eliminating processed sugars (including beer and sweetened drinks) are the most obvious things one can do. Making fruits and vegetables 1/3 to 1/2 of your intake of food daily is also a good plan. Moving away from canned and pre-packaged foods to whole food is important, too. And, of course, drinking between 2 and 3 litres of water daily is also vital to weight loss.

Exercise is a bit trickier.

Most martial arts training is effectively *anaerobic*, meaning without air. Our activity spikes into the anaerobic range regularly during a work-out which effectively negates the fat-burning potential of the exercise. The rule of thumb is that if you can't talk when working out then it probably won't result in fat-burning. Unfortunately, people think that the harder you work then the more fat you will lose. This was what every karate instructor told me between 1989 and 1996. Training hard and fast increases your cardio-vascular fitness but it does not burn fat. Big distinction.

Additionally, martial arts training supposedly only elevates the metabolism for about 1 hour after the work-out. Weight training, on the other hand is supposed to elevate the metabolism for up to SIX hours after the work-out. Given that we *want* the metabolism elevated, weight training is obviously a desireable area to focus our efforts. It does help, however, that weight training has desireable benefits for martial artists that make it worthwhile to focus our endeavours.

Additionally, someone who is active in their lifestyle cannot simply reduce their food intake - that simply forces the body into starvation mode. An active person on WW will likely have to add to the daily allowed food to make up for the difference in metabolisms (WW being designed for overweight housewives who don't traing karate or weights). Whether doing WW or counting calories/fat grams, the active person has to consume enough that the body doesn't go into starvation mode but not so much that the body doesn't burn fat.

I only received some of these ideas just before Christmas. I am currently in a period where I am trying to actually boost my metabolism out of the starvation mode I had put it in. Once I get my metabolism up, I will begin weight training to further boost the metabolism and only *then* will I go back on the WW program (with a few modifications).

Given what I have learned about diet and fitness, I suspect my karate training in the future will be very different than it is now. Weights will become a good big part of my training, not for bulk but for toning and speed/power. I am going to have to look at other activities as part of my karate training, even if they aren't technically 'karate'.

The idea that weight loss is about *lifestyle* changes isn't just talk, it's a reality. Most people who diet fail or re-gain all the weight lost because they really haven't changed anything, just temporarily got back on the wagon.

Just some thoughts.