If you’re like me, you're probably looking for the most effective way to loose weight, get lean and have a life the same time. It's a tough thing to do when there is a boot camp on every block and personal trainer flyers on every board of the places that you frequent, at least that's the case here in Atlanta. Now, there are programs like P90X, Insanity, Quick Weight Loss, Atkins, you name it. I can't tell you anything about them, but I have tried several like them in the past and the only "loss" I accomplished was to the wallet, not the waistline.

Back in 2004-2005, I hired a personal trainer to lead me in the right direction. The workouts were tough, in fact so tough that I injured my left knee from all the jumping, squatting and hopping. The trainer (I won't mention his name) insisted that these workouts would lead to more weight loss. At the time, I was 30 years old, 5'8, 220 lbs, about 22% bodyfat. Even though I was following his generic diet, my weight increased, especially once I stopped moving.

About a month later, my cousin opened a small fitness studio in midtown called metamorphixx. I hadn't panned on working with him, but I did want to tell him about what had happened. I figured he was going to take me down the same road as the prior trainer, and believe me I queried my cousin just like we were meeting for the first time. The info I got was nothing like what I had heard before. Basically, he told me that when most people set out to loose weight, they tend to do one or two things: cut their calories or over-invest in working out. In my case, I assumed the workout was what I needed. Actually, there was one element that I people overlook: their bodytyope. This time around, he took my bodytype in account, enodmorph (shorter and wide frame the tendency to hold onto fat around the waistline) and told me how he could construct a weight loss program, along with the right routine in and out of the gym to match it.

Didn't matter that we were related; a skeptic is a skeptic (plus he used to try and beat me up when we were kids) but I agreed to meet with him once a week vs. 3 times like before. He also gave me a list of food items that were counterproductive to my bodytype, like milk. The prior trainer told me it was okay to add these to my protein shakes in moderation. My cousin noted that since my goal was fat loss around the waste, milk contains estrogen (regular and skim) and spikes estrogen in men and  drives your fat% up even when you are training hard, so it was best not to use milk 80%-100% of time. Cutting the milk alone brought my lines in a matter of a few weeks. He also built my food intake around the foods I enjoy everyday (and I enjoy allot of pizza, trust me). It wasn't the foods I was eating, but what the time of day I was eating and how I arranged them. Outside of putting a few other things into play like increasing my water intake and reducing my salt intake, the rest was pretty easy and only supplements I ever needed were BCAA's to prevent muscle breakdown from cardio and good multi-vitamin geared for training.

The next thing he showed me was how to train myself at the gym and mix it with low intensity cardio, forcing my large muscles to use fat. He created a complete regimen that works in any gym or even at home and it actually worked. Basically, each routine we used, I saved it to my log and he would create a new one to add. Before I knew it, I had several to choose from and we used our sessions to clean up my posture and form. I was able to regain strength in my knee as well.

Some 3-6 weeks later, I was 10 lbs lighter, 8 lbs less in fat and 2 lb of less water retention. I went on to to loose another 20 lbs and since 2009, I kept it off until the end of May 2009, until a lower back injury. At age 37, I've taken on metamorphixx once again to regain strength in my lower back with the clearance from my doctor. When I'm not traveling, I run across a few of their new clients who recognize me from my picture on their website. I see their weight loss as it happens just as I experienced years ago. These guys have found a way to activate weight loss by giving each client a path to follow based their body type, their available resources, their daily habits, and most of their entire budget. Their operation has matured and grown since the first time I set foot inside their studio. I notice now that they even consult with clients on their personal weight loss programs and show them how they actually work (and make sure that they keep working) which I can't say that I've ever seen anyone else do this.

You may have already found a more effective path to take, but I can tell you they have shown me how to execute, maintain and learn new tactics make weight loss easier and build lean muscle more efficiently and cost effective. Their initial consultations are always free and all their programs are innovative. They have an upcoming free workshop coming up in a next few weeks, which I'll plan to attend. They even offer video feedback clips to help me with my lower back which I download to my BlackBerry. I used them quite a bit when I'm traveling. Check out thse guys at  www.metamorphixx.com. They train from the inside out, not the other way around.

Best  of luck...
rentazeric@gmail.com