ERP Software Vendor Strikes up Some Healthy Competition

Andover, MA – January 3, 2010 – Just in time for the season that is most synonymous with weight gain, Visibility Corporation announced a Biggest Loser and Biggest Winner contest to encourage its employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The 13 week competition offered prizes for the biggest loser, or highest percentage of body weight lost weekly and overall, as well as for the person who exercised the greatest number of days during the competition (the biggest winner).

The companywide percentage of body weight lost over the course of the competition was 8.17% among the contest participants, with an average personal weight loss of 7.4%. The overall winner was Arthur Keith, who lost the highest percentage of body weight at 24.1%. He also won the highest number of weekly prizes in the loser contest. Ashley Zuccarello had the second most weekly loser wins and came in third place for the overall highest percentage of body weight lost.

In the biggest winner competition, contestants were tracked based on the number of days they worked out during the 13 week competition. Michael Murphy, Serenity Maxwell, and Arthur Keith shared the biggest winner prize for exercising every day of the 13 week competition without missing a single day. At the close of the contest, Arthur Keith stated “This competition gave me the opportunity to prove to myself that I could improve my health by exercising regularly and managing my weight. I had a lot of support from my fellow employees which is something I would not have had without this competition. I have to thank Visibility for this great opportunity.”

Visibility is a registered trademark of Visibility Corporation and its affiliates. The names of companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The Essentials

What do you have to do to lose weight? For most people responding to that question their answer comes quickly and without too much thought-diet and exercise. And if further quizzed on the type of exercise they had in mind, “aerobic” is the typical answer. While those are simple answers to simply stated questions, the real answer to successful weight loss is somewhat more involved, however, the good news is there is an answer!

The proliferation of fad diets and infomercials have confused many Americans into believing there is some supplement or macronutrient-eliminating-diet that will solve our weight loss woes. To make matters worse we’ve all been told for years that aerobic exercise is the answer to burning fat. You’ve seen the “fat burning zone” on cardio equipment. Just another example of misleading marketing designed to sell weight loss solutions in the billion dollar weight loss industry.

Forget all that misinformation then let me clear up the confusion and give you the three Essentials that clients who have successfully transformed their bodies have found so effective

The answers to what’s wrong with aerobic exercise and how to master your weight loss are: synergistic implementation of resistance training (weight training), moderate aerobic exercise and the right nutrition, or what we call The Essentials.

It almost seems like common sense, but yet, very few people effectively implement all three components when pursuing their weight loss goals. Significant fat loss and avoiding the common fat loss plateau can be accomplished by incorporating a balanced effort of resistance training and moderate aerobic exercise with the support of the right nutrition. Too often fat loss efforts rely on a diet and aerobic exercise exclusively. This approach will only lead to a small amount of weight loss, a slower metabolism and the frustration of regaining the weight.

Diets normally don’t work. Diets are not realistic and are often short lived. One of the most popular diets actually asks you to practically eliminate an essential macronutrient. In reality, the answer to your nutritional program lies in educating yourself about balanced nutrition and eating behavior modifications-not in eliminating nutrients or severe calorie deprivation.

The severe calorie deprivation diets will only slow down your metabolism by decreasing metabolically active muscle tissue and putting your body into a natural defense mechanism we commonly call the starvation mode. The release of a weight regulating hormone and an enzyme (lipo-protein lipase) will slow your body’s metabolism when it interprets your diet as starvation.

In addition, an hour of cardio will not give you the long term weight loss you desire. If you want to change your body you must decrease the importance of aerobic exercise and shift some of your efforts to implementing resistance training. Resistance training is critical if you want to take control of your metabolism. An increase in muscle (and I don’t mean bulking up) will increase your metabolism.

For example, one pound of muscle requires 40-50 calories a day just to maintain it. Think what five added pounds does to your bodies caloric needs in a day-in a week! Not to mention, 48 hours after a resistance training workout your metabolism will still be elevated to aid muscle recovery. That’s the key to long term permanent fat loss. It’s not just what you do 5 percent of your day (exercise)-it’s what your body does the other 95 percent of the day.

Let’s face it, most people really don’t enjoy the boredom of a long drawn out cardio workout. Don’t get me wrong, cardio is an important component to the Essentials, but in moderation. Excessive aerobic exercise will unravel your toning efforts by decreasing lean muscle. If your body is not being provided the right nutrition and resistance training to increase or at least maintain your body’s muscle, your body will break down muscle protein as an energy source and you now know how important muscle is to your metabolism.

The synergy of all three components is critical. If your nutrition does not provide the right “fuel” for your resistance training efforts you will not increase your muscle tone and therefore not increase your metabolism. What’s more, poor nutrition will not help in optimizing fat utilization during moderate aerobic exercise. You see, with the right nutrition you can decrease the amount of cardio you have to do, this reduction will allow for optimal maintenance of muscle tissue, and you will effectively turn your body into a fat burning machine.

Let me give you one more way to look at it. If you look at the chart on this page, all three components have equal percentages of the pie chart (33.33percent)-and all Essentials have been perfectly executed making a perfectly round wheel. Now imagine that resistance training remains at 33 percent of the chart, aerobic exercise is 20 percent and nutrition is 10 percent. It is no longer a perfectly round wheel. So which wheel do you think would allow your car to run the most effectively?

You can see, an equal concentration on all three components of the Essentials will eliminate frustration, make your pursuit enjoyable and reward your self confidence with a successful body transformation.

A Quick Look at Some of Today’s Most Effective Diets

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

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The Idiot-Proof Diet

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.

When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!

NutriSystem

The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.

However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.

After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.

At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.

The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.

Weight Watchers

Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.

Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.