This week, a few people were curious how quickly they could lose weight and inches around their waistline.  It appears the body composition / circumference tape test is coming soon.  All services use the body composition test. It requires all military personnel to weigh in and have their height measured.  When out of height/weight standards, body fat is measured using the circumference test – measuring the neck and waist.  The body composition test is only part of the Air Force PFT that requires all personnel to run 1.5 miles, pushups, and crunches.  This is the same test as the Navy and Coast Guard.  The VO2 Max bicycle ergometer test is still available to those members who cannot run due to leg injuries.  The stationary cycle test is designed to measure how efficiently the heart and lungs work to transfer oxygen through the body.  The test uses heart rate to estimate aerobic capacity (VO2max).

The question I received from a member of the Air Force is:  What exercises will reduce my waist at least 8 inches in 2 months and what exercises will increase my neck size?

The WHOLE plan is needed in this case - not just some exercises.  Honestly, I do not know if it can be done in eight weeks - but here is how I would attempt it.  For starters if you want to reduce inches that quickly – drink more water.  Water retention maybe one of the culprits to your waist size.  If you think you may be retaining water, try adding up to a gallon of water a day and you could lose about five to ten pounds of retained water in a few short days. I have seen people lose up to twenty in a week by ONLY adding water to their diet.  But once that is done you need to focus on the principles of healthy weight loss below that will help you with your goal:

1) Eating plan - see StewSmith.com most recent articles on Diet - Summer Lean Down Plan

This eating plan will help your body keep the metabolism high and burn calories throughout the day.  Limiting fat and processed carbs, adding fiber, and protein will lean you out quickly and in a healthy manner.

2) Cardio workouts - 4-5 times a week of 45-60 minutes of cardio exercises -elliptical gliding, walking, jogging, swimming, rowing, or biking are great examples of how to burn calories.  If you are overweight and need to lose over 50 lbs I do not recommend running.  Select a non-impact form of the aerobics listed above.  Better ideas to incorporate these into your day can be seen on the StewSmith.com Fitness eBook store and Article Archive.

3) Ab exercises - READ the Articles - Rest with Crunches, Lose the Love-handles, and Washboard abs - do crunches without holding your hand behind your head and build your neck muscles too.  All of these articles are listed in the StewSmith.com Article Archive.

4) Muscle training - weights or PT program - Lift weights or PT (pushups, situps, pullups, squats, lunges, crunches) every other day 3 times a week.  Also add some neck exercises into your day by simply lying on the floor and raise your head until your chin touches your collarbones – repeat 20-30 times.  Then lift your head off the floor and shake your head as if you were nodding “no” – repeat 20-30 times.  This will help you add some girth to your neck in a relatively short period of time.

5) See the programs - I have a list of programs that can help you, but it all depends on your fitness level:  see below: