The Amazing Weight Loss Story Of Allan Hoffman

Meet Allan Hoffman, 35 years old, starting weight 555 lbs, uses a wheelchair to get around, has a fractured vertebrae in his lower back and it’s fair to say he had a very difficult childhood. He’s struggled with his weight forever, battles depression and over the past 10 years his weight has gone from 305 to 555 lbs. Talk about having to overcome some challenges! His doctor said he should have gastric bypass surgery to lose the weight. Enter the exerspy and the dotFIT team.

It must have been fate because Allan reunited with a half-brother he never knew he had, who happens to be one of dotFIT’s team members. Allan gets an exerspy, a few phone coaching sessions and starts using the dotFIT Me program to shed the weight. With his physical limitations, we had to start slow. Fast forward three months and he’s dropped 62 pounds. Here’s the strategy we used:

1. Identify WHY you want to lose so you stick to the process. Allan’s motivation was twofold – 1) meet his biological father face-to-face for the first time this summer and 2) see his 6 year old son graduate from high school. He keeps a picture of his son on his computer to keep him focused.

2. Set realistic and achievable goals. Allan’s ultimate goal is to weigh 210 lbs so we set him up to lose 2-3 pounds a week.

3. Give him visible targets to hit daily so he sees progress every day. Using the dotFIT Me program an exerspy – his daily calorie burn target was approximately 4300 calories (remember, the heavier you are, the more you burn). His daily calorie intake goal was about 2800 calories. When he hits those targets, he loses weight. Period.

4. Log everything you eat. Becoming conscious of what goes in your mouth is the first step towards making better decisions and Allan was prone to mindlessly eat.

5. Increase physical activity. Do upper body exercises using cans for hand weights and leg lifts as he sits in his wheelchair. Work up to 5 minutes of physical activity per day. The exerspy tracks this so he knows whether he reaches this daily goal.

6. Eat more fiber-rich foods. Get 25 grams a day to start and track in using the online food log.

As you can see – a few simple adjustments repeated over time has produced AMAZING results. No diets. No drastic workouts or magic cleanses. Just practical changes anyone can do and a bit of encouragement and guidance along the way.  

–Kat Barefield, MS, RD
Registered Dietitian for dotFIT

To find out more about the dotFIT difference, contact us at any of our desert area fitness centers.

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Exercises For Agility Training

If the thought of pedaling a stationary bike or walking on a treadmill instigates a yawn or a genuine lack of enthusiasm, you are not alone.  If you want to change up your routine and create a great cardio challenge for yourself, try performing an agility training routine.  Agility training is another form of cardio fitness that can be fun and create more helpful results for the body than simply increasing cardiovascular efficiency and decreasing body fat.  If you are looking to give your cardio fitness a kick, add fun to your routine and increase your body’s ability to function and avoid injury, agility training is definitely worth investigating.

Agility training teaches the body to start, stop, and change direction quickly while maintaining proper posture.  Agility challenges you to control your center of gravity over a changing base of support while changing directions at varying speeds.  It is important to remember that we move at varying speeds and in various planes each day.  Training to improve movement not only increases functional capabilities, but will help you avoid injuries by teaching your mind and body to work together and move at different speeds using the correct muscle at the correct time in the correct plane of motion.  Agility training can provide you with numerous overall training benefits such as challenging your core, legs, balance, reactive capabilities, and increasing your cardiovascular efficiency.

Agility work can be done using cones or lines and is best performed on a basketball court, tennis court, or in an aerobics room.  Performing agility drills on concrete is not advised and may be harmful to your body.  Opt for surfaces that provide better control for short, quick movements and avoid surfaces that may have loose gravel or feel slippery.  With agility training, the proper surface can make all the difference.

Below are a few different drills you can utilize within an agility training program:

1.  5-10-5 Drill:  Begin with three cones, placing two cones 10 meters apart.  Place the final cone at the midpoint.  Start at the middle cone A and sprint to cone B, then to cone C, and back to cone A.  For increased intensity, get a friend to time you as you complete the drill.



2.  Box Drill:  Place four cones in a square pattern, approximately 10 yards away from each other.  Start at cone A and sprint to cone B.  Side shuffle from cone B to cone C.  Backpedal from cone C to cone D and carioca from cone D to cone A.  Try to maintain appropriate speeds and form.



3.   T-Drill:  Place four cones 5 yards apart from each other in a “T” pattern as shown below.  Sprint from cone A to Cone B.  Side shuffle from cone B to cone C.  Carioca from cone C to cone D and side shuffle from cone D to cone B.  Backpedal from cone B to cone A.

 

Watch your key checkpoints to make sure you are performing your drills correctly.  Always be aware of your body position during your drills.  Good agility comes from good form!

Be sure to design your agility workout so that you have time for a proper warm-up and cool-down.  Both are essential to good form and injury prevention.  As with any program, try not to overdo it!  Work an agility program into your routine performing this workout one to two days a week.  You must give your body time to adapt to the new program in the beginning and give your body time to recover after performing this workout. 

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Use Pre & Post Workout Snacks To Maximize Your Performance

A large, pre-workout whole food meal should be consumed approximately 2.5 to 3 hours before activity. However, to maximize each training session, athletes should always include a pre-workout snack.

The timing, type and amount of food eaten before workouts and events can drastically affect the quality of a training session and the outcome of the event.  Carbohydrate is the primary energy source used by the nervous and muscular systems and is essential for peak performance.  A high carbohydrate pre-workout snack with protein eaten 10 to 40 minutes beforehand can provide the energy to fuel the activity while allowing enough time for adequate digestion.  Conversely, a snack high in fiber, protein or fat may not fill up muscle energy (glycogen) stores, can slow digestion, cause an upset stomach and impair performance.

The recovery process is also influenced by when and what you eat before and after activity.  By eating the ideal blend of carbohydrate and protein immediately before and after exercise, you reduce muscle damage, stimulate muscle growth, refill energy stores and ensure your body is prepared for the next workout or event.  Proper repair and building of tissues after each training bout can prevent chronic fatigue, injury and over-training.  Pre- and post-training and event snacks should be convenient and in a rapidly digestible form. This helps deliver the necessary nutrients for growth and repair to muscles at the right times. Liquid shakes with the proper blend of nutrients are ideal because they are quickly absorbed.

Pre-workout Snack Guidelines

• In general, the proper amount of carbohydrate in a pre-workout snack can be as high as 0.5 gram per pound of bodyweight (0.5g/lb) for long endurance-type activities.
• To determine the proper amount in grams, simply split your weight in half (ex. 150 lbs/2 = ~75 grams).
• Lower amounts may be adequate for strength training or workouts lasting less than an hour (~0.25gms/lb).  
• Items with at least 50 percent carbs and approximately 20 percent protein and 20 percent fat are ideal.
• Pre-workout snacks should be consumed 10 to 40 minutes before activity to ensure the main gas tank is “topped off” at the onset of training and the stomach is relatively empty.  This is especially important for early morning workouts.

Post-workout Snack Guidelines

There is a “metabolic window” that lasts for approximately 60 to 90 minutes after intense training when the body is highly receptive to nutrient uptake. During this timeframe, you have the best chance of reducing muscle damage, maximizing exercise induced strength and muscle size by eating the appropriate amounts of carbohydrate and protein immediately after training.  This short muscle building “window” is most active the moment you cease exercise and from that time on, the muscle building/recovery activities begin to decrease. Once this window is closed, there’s no making up for the potential gains in size even if you eat perfectly the rest of the day. In other words, the immediate post-workout formula/feeding activates the muscle building process, and during this specialized time period the growth is greater than normal gains in daily muscle building that occur without consuming these pre- and post- snacks. A fast-acting liquid formula allows nutrients to be delivered to muscles to take advantage of this opportunity.

• The post-workout formula should be the same as the pre- (see above).  
• Choose snacks based on convenience, preference and venue.

dotFIT Makes Your Life Easier When Planning Workout Snacks

Traditional whole foods are not ideal pre- and post-training snacks because of the time it takes to digest solid food including extraction then absorption of the needed nutrients (about 2-3 hours). Although nutrition bars with the proper carbohydrate, protein and fat ratios can be effectively used before and after exercise, liquid is generally better for the simple reason of speed to the muscles. The dotFIT Pre/Post Workout & Meal Replacement Formula was designed with the ideal blend of nutrients needed for pre- and post-training snacks. The dotFIT FirstString™ powder is the ideal formula for youth athletes and college athletes. FirstString contains the amounts of carbohydrate, protein and fat to meet NCAA guidelines. You can take your game to the next level by following the recommendations here, those in "Performance Nutrition 101" and the fluid guidelines in "Proper Hydration".

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