Fit Factor: Plan your workout

As the saying goes, every fighter has a plan until he gets hit. When it comes to getting fit, that same logic often applies. Many people have he best of intentions, but when the physical effort, time crunch, and tests to their willpower become too much, those intentions sometimes fall flat on the canvas.

That all being said, it is still necessary to have some sort of plan. Whether or not that strategy is sound, well, that's another story. Nevertheless, in almost all cases, eating right and performing regular exercise will benefit you. That much is not in question. What is in question, however, is whether or not your plan is providing you with the maximum results.

Making that determination, however, is seldom ever easy. One of the main reasons for the difficulty is the surfeit of conflicting fitness information that is passed along magazines, peer-reviewed journals, websites, and the locker rooms of gyms and health clubs. When trying to come up with an example, the "working out in the morning before breakfast" debate was first to come to mind.

Some people will tell you that the best way to burn fat is to perform your cardio exercise first thing in the morning, before you've had the chance to eat anything. Are they wrong? Some say yes, while others say no. What do I think? Well, I apologize to the proponents of this exercise strategy, but I am against it. For one, your cortisol levels are highest in the early part of the day. So, in some sense, morning exercise can have somewhat of a muscle-wasting effect. And secondly, the jury's still out on whether or not morning exercise burns fat any more effectively than exercise performed at any other time of the day.

Of course, there are plenty of people who may disagree. As I said before, there exists a great deal of conflicting information about health and fitness. But the one thing most people can agree on is the need for a good plan and, even more importantly, sticking to that plan.