Anonymous asked: Does pilates give you leaner, longer looking muscles?

To have “lean muscles” you need muscle and you need low body fat. To give the appearance of long muscles, you need to be tall or flexible or both.

Pilates can help a little with both, but you’ll need your diet under control as well.

Anonymous asked: I sweat sweet not salty

get that checked out by a doctor, yo

Anonymous asked: Hi. So I overate today by about 400 calories. Will that make much of a difference to my weekly weigh in? And do you think it's okay if I eat my regular amount of calories tomorrow and do my regular exercise but burn the 400 calories on top of that?

That’s totally fine! If your average calorie intake/outtake for the week is the same, your weight loss will be on the same track. 

For example, for 7 days of net calories: 1300, 1500, 1400, 1100, 1800, 1300, 1400 is exactly the same as 1400 net cals every day!

Anonymous asked: Hi there! nice blog huh.. really inspiring. i just wanna ask if training shoes can be used for running also? cuz im planning to get one.. dont want to spend two pairs for different purposes. u know, those are way costly. :) thanks.

I’m not sure what you mean by “training shoes” but if you’re talking about just regular athletic shoes, they often don’t have any support for your heels or ankles. This becomes a problem if you’re doing 3+ miles a day because your joints/knees/hips might start to hurt! If you start hurting, definitely get new shoes.

If you’re doing less than 10 miles a week I think it’s fine to use training shoes, but any more and you’d want to look into better shoes. I have a post about running shoes here!

Anonymous asked: Hi, when you say to burn more calories than you eat, what do you mean by that? Like are you supposed to almost eat like 400 and burn 500, i know that sounds dumb but i don't know what you mean?

Just through living you’ll burn at least a set amount of calories. This amount is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR): how many calories the average person your size burns while they’re lying down (not moving) for 24 hours.

You can calculate this number here, here, and here. If the numbers end up being different, average them. Mine comes out to around 1335.

Then, on top of that amount, you’ll burn calories from walking, digesting, talking, standing, exercising, etc. These calories plus your BMR are called your AMR, active metabolic rate, which is approximately ALL the calories you’ll burn in one day. AMR is sometimes referred to as total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). There are AMR calculators on those links, too or you can calculate it here. 

So if I do an hour of moderate exercise, my total calories burned for the day is around 2,078. If I don’t exercise, my total calories burned for the day is around 1,732. Which means that I will lose weight if I eat any less than that number, hence the burn more calories than I eat. To lose 1 pound a week, I would eat 2078-500=1578 on the days I work out. And for the days I don’t work out, 1,232.

I hope this clears it up!

Anonymous asked: I'm a student, and that being said, i don't have the much money to spend! however, i want to a buy an accurate heart rate monitor that will tell me how many calories I've burned during a workout. Do you know of one that's accurate, but not to expensive? thanks :)

There are two types of heart rate monitors, one that you have to stop to take your pulse in your finger, and one with a band around the ribcage that talks to a watch.

The second type is more expensive, but more accurate. Polar heart rate monitors are popular, check this one out, it’s on sale for $70. And here’s a cheap one with a band.

I don’t own one, does anyone else have any recommendations?

Anonymous asked: I HATE weight lifting, like with machines. What options i have for strentgh trainning that work just as well?

weight lifting with dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, or barbells?

Anonymous asked: Are blogilates videos good? Do they really work?

I like them when I don’t want to go to the gym! It depends which videos you’re doing, too. And also what your goals are… They will work because they’re exercise, they’re not magic. If you’re exercising that’s much, much better than sitting on the couch.

Anonymous asked: hi! ok this might annoy you but i'm sorry ok do you think it is bad to eat one of those 90 calorie brownies a day? (it doesn't affect my daily calorie intake and plus i work out about 40 mins.) do you think it'll affect my weight loss?

hahahaha I love that you know this will annoy me. Short answer: it’s fine, treat yourself!

This question is in my FAQ:

Is this food bad for me and will it make me gain weight?
I believe specific foods aren’t necessarily good or bad its the quantity that you eat them in! I will eat cookies, cake, ice cream, fries etc etc in small quantities and I don’t gain weight. Moderation is key!

The only way to gain weight is to eat more than you burn. It’s as simple as that, and scientifically proven. No single food can make you fat, unless you eat too much of it!! 

If you’re still unsure, look up the food’s grade on Fooducate.com

Anonymous asked: I'm 5'6 and I would love to be 120, currently around 130, and I go to the gym 4-6 times a week, doing a combo of cardio and weights but I'm just wondering is it okay to have treats like you do? like today I ate healthy except raisin bran for dinner but is stuff like that going to hinder my weight loss? Also, what is a good substitute for running? thanks :p

Since you go to the gym so often, I don’t see why not! Whenever I do treat myself, I try to keep it under my calorie limits, though. Raisin bran isn’t a big deal, but you’re probably missing out on the benefits of eating protein and veggies. 

Here’s a whole bunch of different cardio exercises. In there is skipping, dancing, biking, jumping jacks, etc! 

Good luck!

Anonymous asked: what workout did you do today?

You can see it here and I have some other ones logged here

Anonymous asked: When you were in the process of trying to lose weight did you not eat alot?

I’m not sure what you mean by “eat a lot,” I ate 1200-1600 cals depending on the day and if I worked out. Does that answer your question? My food is kind of logged here

Anonymous asked: how many calories are you shooting for per day now that you are trying to gain muscle?

I’m slowly going to raise the amount that I eat over the next few weeks, I don’t want to like shock my body. I’ll probably aim for 1900-2000, but get up there slowly.

Anonymous asked: Hi :) how many minutes of exercising do you recommend per day? I usually do 30 minutes or a little more than 3 miles on the elliptical, insanity or a bit of weights 5x a week, (so usually around 30 minutes every time i workout) is that okay/enough? What do you do? P.S. i'm maintaining, not loosing

How much you work out depends on your goals! That should be fine for maintaining, depending on what you eat.

I usually hit the gym for 45 mins to an hour. If I’m doing cardio, I’ll do 30-40 mins then do abs, and if I do weights I take as long as I need to finish my routine for the day. I try for 4-5 times a week, but I often don’t make it haha

Anonymous asked: What are some really good cardio exercises to do at home, even though it is warm weather, but the airconditioner helps. I usually skip or run but it's warm outside and i don't have a treadmill. or even ab workouts would be good :)

• Home workout DVDs there are links to insanity, the 30 day shred, and others on my blog.
• Cardio alternatives
• Dance workout DVDs
• Home workouts
• Ab work outs
• POP Pilates