[Lisa] September, done! Three months in 14 lbs. and one size down. As the math shows, I have been chugging along at about 1 lb. per week.  Now that I have that established, I shall title the rest of my portion of this blog entry, “A Tale of Two Pretties.”

As you may remember, Mike ran a special back in August, if a friend wanted to check out Pure Physique he/she would get one week of classes and two training session, free! I decided to ask my friend and favorite Barista, Sacha if she wanted to come and join the fun.

Some background, like Mr. Lipowski, I have an addiction to Starbucks. Each day that I train with Mike I stop at Yorktown Starbucks to get fuel for myself and a tall black eye for Mike (yes, it is a suck-up, I will do anything to possibly lessen the pain). Over the past year or so I have shared with Sacha, and the crew at Starbucks, tales about Mike aka: Satan. I had them writing “Satan” on his cup. At this point a tall black eye is also known as a “Satan.”

Ok – back to Sacha. So she decided to take me up on the offer. She went to every class that week and to both training sessions. At the end of the week she had lost 2 lbs and decided to sign up. As of this writing she has completed 6 weeks and has lost 17 lbs. As you can see she is clearly losing quicker than I. Please do not misunderstand; I am thrilled for her but at the same time annoyed with myself that I am not losing as fast.

This has happened to me before. I have gone to Weight Watchers numerous times with a friend and have always lost slower. I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing and yes it is working, but it can sometimes feel that I am not doing well because others lose faster. Take shows like “The Biggest Loser” each week each of the contestants usually loses weight, but someone who has lost say 5 lbs. feels defeated because another person has lost 10 lbs. Mike, do you recommend lowering my caloric intake and increasing exercise in hopes of ramping things up, trying to change my mindset or something else?

[Mike]  Am I addicted to coffee…yeah; I guess you could say I am. Taking it a step further I have an intense likeness for extremely bold coffee hence the Starbucks with 2 shots of espresso Lisa uses as a brown-nosing strategy….If only it worked.

Before addressing Lisa’s dissatisfaction with the fleetness of her fat loss I want to first publically acknowledge how proud I am of her and Sacha for the progress they’ve made. So many people talk about what they want to do, what they want to achieve, but don’t take the necessary actions or do the little annoying things that make a big difference. These two are doing it all which is why they’re finding success where so many others fail.

I have to admit this is one of the easier questions Lisa has had for me up to this point however the simplicity of its answer will either be met with reassurance or increased annoyance. The reason why Sacha has lost at a faster rate than Lisa can be answered with one word, individualism.

There are several genetic, lifestyle, exercise and nutrition related factors that determine fat loss.  The similarities between Lisa and Sacha pretty much begin and end with them being women who train at PURE PHYSIQUE and follow a calorie restricted diet.  Here’s a list of some of their differences and how they affect fat loss.

• Age – there is a natural decline in a person’s metabolic rate as they get older.  (This decline is exacerbated in individuals not engaging in a weight training program to help maintain muscle mass.) With there being a 20 year plus difference in age it is only rational to assume that Lisa’s metabolism is not functioning at the same rate.

• Work/ Daily activity – Sacha’s job has her on her feet all day, moving around while Lisa is confined to a desk.  While it’s difficult to quantify how many calories burned this accounts for its safe to say Sacha is probably burning a few hundred extra calories that Lisa is not.  Sacha also attends 2-3 group exercise classes each week which also accounts for extra calories burned.

• Hormones – At 50, Lisa is experiencing hormonal changes that Sacha won’t have to concern herself with for years.  Whether female or male the natural slowing in hormone production after the age of 35 directly affects metabolism.

• Muscle – Here is one area where I know Lisa is not lacking. The more muscle a person carries the more calories they burn at rest.  However people who tend to lose weight fast—as they do on the Biggest Loser—also lose a lot of muscle (especially if they don’t weight train) which accounts for a large percentage of their weight loss.  This in turn wrecks their metabolism and leaves them weak and susceptible to join problems.  A loss of 1-2 lbs. per week is the ideal rate of weight loss to insure against muscle loss.

• Metabolism – As you can see from the above there are many factors that affect metabolism, some controllable others inherent. Two inherent factors not yet mentioned are body type and food assimilation.  Food assimilation is how efficiently your body breaks down, distributes, and utilizes the food consumed.  Body types can run the spectrum of being excessively slender with little to no muscle, to muscular with little body fat and rotund with little to lots of muscle.  A more in-depth discussion of body types can be found in my book PURE PHYSIQUE: How to MAXIMIZE Fat-loss & Muscle Development.