While I’m fitness nut, there are times I really don’t want to work out, even though I should. Let’s face it, after a long day at work, sitting on the couch watching TV, or surfing the Net can sound A LOT more appealing than slaving away in a crowded gym. Working out in the mornings, while very beneficial is often not an option.

So how the heck do you get motivated after a long day at work to exercise if you’re not a fitness nut and sometimes you HATE the thought of exercising? Well that’s a good question my friend and one that I think about often.

If you seriously don’t like working out, or need a mindset shift, check out my 7 Ways to Increase Your Motivation to Exercise. If you know you need to workout, but sometimes lack the motivation, then try putting these 5 simple tricks into action that can make a BIG difference:

Continue Reading Get Motivated to Exercise After a LONG Day at Work | 5 Tips

I’ve discussed 5 Ways to Measure Your Body Fat Percentage and the Ideal Body Weight Formula, but what is your ideal body fat percentage? What is a healthy, realistic body fat percentage to shoot for so you can have that lean, toned body you desire?

While there is some debate as to what constitutes a “healthy” body fat range, I have below 2 different types of body fat percentage charts, which I will walk you through along with some insights into how to read each chart.

Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart #1: American Council on Exercise

The chart below from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) is one of the most commonly used body fat charts. As you can see, women have a higher body fat percentage relative to men for a given level. Women have more fat because of physiological differences such as hormones, breasts, and sexual organs. In addition, women need a higher amount of body fat for ovulation.

Continue Reading Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart: How Lean Should You Be?

While I’ve talked about the importance of measuring body fat percentage, I think tracking your body weight over time is also very important. Unfortunately, most people track their weight incorrectly and don’t understand the most important reason WHY they should even bother.

Daily Body Weight Tracking Can Make You Crazy

When most people try to lose, or even gain weight, they try to weigh themselves every day, or even multiple times per day, which is at best a waste of time, and at worst, compulsive, and even counterproductive (I admit I’ve done this). Day to day, it’s almost impossible to track meaningful changes in your body. It’s like trying to measure how fast grass grows on a daily basis. Pretty silly, right?

Daily weight-ins can make you go crazy because of changes in water weight. Your body is comprised of 60-75% water, which depends on the amount of muscle you have (muscle contains more water than fat). Small fluctuations in your hydration level can change your body weight by a few pounds. If you are weighing yourself multiple times per day, any changes in body weight will be a results of changes in hydration level.

Continue Reading Track Body Weight With Monday Morning Weigh-Ins

I believe body transformation requires developing healthy habits to replace unhealthy habits. You may feel overwhelmed with all the suggestions I make on this website to improve your health and achieve a leaner body. My advice: Divide and Conquer. Let me explain…

As I’ve followed the entrepreneurial path the last couple years, at times I feel completely overwhelmed by all the various tasks and projects I need to complete. But when I break apart the tasks by prioritizing (divide), then complete them over time (conquer), managing a business becomes a lot more well, manageable. If you apply this same “divide and conquer” approach to improving your health, then changing your habits and striving for optimal health is far more achievable.

Here are three examples of people I know who (1) focused on their unhealthiest habits (prioritized), (2) then made small changes over time that added up to impressive results:

Continue Reading Divide & Conquer: Small Changes Add Up

If you’ve been following BuiltLean.com, you know losing fat WITHOUT losing muscle is the only way to get lean. So how do you track if you are losing fat, or muscle, or both? The first place to start is by measuring your body fat percentage.

I have an overview of the 5 most common methods of measuring body fat percentage below, along with the ONLY method to perfectly measure body fat percentage (I’ll bet you don’t want to use this method). While these 5 methods vary in accuracy, the key to assessing body fat levels is consistent measurements over time (repeatability) so that you can effectively track your progress.

1) Skin Fold Caliper

The “skin fold” method measures your body fat percentage by pinching your fat with your fingers then measuring the thickness with a body fat caliper. The reading is given in millimeters, which you compare to a chart with age and gender to arrive at your body fat percentage. There are many different types of caliper tests, which range from only one site like with the Accumeasure Body Fat Caliper to a 7 site Jackson Pollack Method (some are as high as 12 sites).

Continue Reading 5 Ways to Measure Body Fat Percentage

Because I’m interested in how people seek fitness information online, I regularly check Google’s keyword tool, which shows how many times per month people search Google for words, or phrases. By searching for fitness related phrases, we can peek into the American psyche that reveals interesting insights into how Americans approach their health.

I was searching for the keyword phrase “lose weight” and came up with the top 15 results ranked by the average number of searches per month for the trailing 12 months (U.S. search volume):

Continue Reading The State of Fitness in America: Just Analyze Google

A lot of people have been asking me about my fitness philosophy to help get a leaner, healthier body. So I created a video to answer that question. I also wanted to create some context for all the exercise and nutrition videos that I will be adding in the future.

If you blend these 3 elements I discuss into your life, I really do believe you can reach your potential!

The one thing I would like to add to this video is that being lean is really a lifestyle. Not every lean person has the same exact lifestyle, but the vast majority of people who are lean in my opinion infuse these 3 elements into their lives.

I hope you enjoyed this video and I encourage you to share it with friends! Also, am I missing anything? What would you add?

I’m very pleased to announce the launch of BuiltLeanTV, now available on Youtube! I must admit it’s strange to see myself on the same video platform as funny cat videos, but Youtube happens to be the 2nd largest search engine in the world! I’m considering adding BuiltLeanTV to other video platforms, so I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s the first video:

BuiltLeanTV is all about what YOU want:

Continue Reading BuiltLeanTV: It’s All About YOU!

It can be very challenging finding a heart rate monitor that fits your budget and your needs because there are thousands to choose from. I created a 7 step checklist you can follow to make the process MUCH easier. I also give you my top pick for a great heart rate monitor that doesn’t break your wallet.

1) Heart Rate Reading Should Be Easily Visible

Believe it or not, most heart rate monitors don’t make the heart rate reading easily visible on the display. I know, it’s crazy. Polar heart rate monitors, which are considered “best of breed” are notorious for making the heart rate reading extremely small and even worse, hard to find!

Continue Reading How to Choose a Heart Rate Monitor

The 5 Stages of Change Model is a very useful framework that describes the series of stages we go through to change our lifestyle habits. The critical assumption that underpins this model is that behavioral changes do not happen in one step, but through a series of distinct, predicable stages. Just realizing the stage of change you’re in may be helpful for you to succeed.

While this model was originally developed in the 1970′s to better understand how smokers are able to give up their addiction to cigarettes, it has since been used to understand changing just about any type of behavior. For the purposes of this article, eating unhealthy foods, or not exercising are the habits we are trying to change.

1) Precontemplation

Continue Reading 5 Stages of Change Model: Which Stage Are You In?