‘South Beach Diet’ follow-up expands options

Do More with Less
I advised Susan to switch to an interval training program. In interval training, you alternate between short bursts of intensive effort and easier recovery periods, as opposed to working at a steady, continuous, and potentially monotonous pace. While this book focuses on walking, just about any form of exercise can be done in an interval training mode, including swimming, running, biking, elliptical training, and even strength training.

Here’s the advantage: When you work at a higher intensity for part of the time, you end up burning far more calories and fat in less time than you would if you were working out at a steady pace. And there’s a bonus: With interval training, the higher the intensity of the exercise, the longer the afterburn; that is, you will continue to burn more fat and calories after you’ve completed your exercise session. As you become more fit and develop more lean muscle mass, you increase your basal metabolic rate even further. This means you’ll burn more fat and calories while you’re going through your daily activities, and even while you’re resting.

Don’t let the term higher intensity scare you. It’s true that you may be working harder than you’re used to for short periods of time, but you will have plenty of time to recharge during the easier recovery periods. Interval training is not just for the very fit. It works just as well for people who are not as fit and is even being used to help cardiac patients and people with lung disease get back in shape. That said, I do recommend that you talk with your doctor before embarking on this or any exercise program, especially if you haven’t been exercising.

Susan was also missing another important component of fitness—a core-strengthening program to develop the muscles in her back and abdomen and increase her overall strength and flexibility. Susan’s treadmill workout focused on her cardiovascular system, but she needed to do something more to further improve her muscle tone and bone density.

Due to a natural decrease in hormones and to reduced physical activity, both men and women tend to lose muscle and bone as they age. For women, this drop in hormones occurs fairly abruptly during menopause and typically causes a drop in metabolic rate. Consequently, postmenopausal women invariably find it much tougher to maintain their weight.

For men, the drop in hormones—what is called andropause—is more gradual, but it too results in a slower metabolism and weight gain with age.

In both men and women, decreased hormone levels and decreased physical activity also diminish the quantity of muscle (and bone). Since muscle requires more calories to maintain than fat, less muscle means fewer calories burned, which further slows metabolism. By maintaining your muscle mass with exercise, you can help overcome the natural decrease in metabolic rate.

That’s why, as you age, it’s so important to keep your metabolism revved up. If you want those muscles to be metabolically active—if you want to burn more fat and calories—you must use them. I therefore recommended that Susan follow the South Beach Supercharged Fitness Program, described in Part II. Before she could protest that she was already pressed for time, I showed her how she could do an even more effective cardio and calorie-burning program in half the time she was already spending on the treadmill (and achieve core fitness and greater overall muscle tone on alternate days).

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