Summary: Today we have an interview with Roberta Saum who won the Level 2 of our Open Category in the latest Venus Index Contest. Check out her pictures: Roberta is extremely happy with the way she looks and she has every right to be, just look at the photos. And she is 51, most girls who are in their 20's or even 30's would kill for that body! Roberta ran marathons, lifted weights, did martial arts, and remained physically active for about 23 years. She was always overweight and always felt frustration about being overweight too. Today she is a walking inspiration to everyone, her family, her friends and everyone in the gym. She is proof that just because you have been out of shape for decades and you are not in your 30’s anymore, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on your physique goals. Don't ever be ashamed of your age. All of our Venus's are older than you would expect and they are proud of that! Presentation Is Everything In the first contest Roberta knew nothing about posing and presentation. She did well though. However, if you really want to show everyone the hard work you have done, then you need to learn to pose, you need to learn how to present yourself. The best looking model can look totally average if they're not posing correctly. The lights, posing, tan, angle, and some flexing is what makes all the difference, in one word - presentation. Look up models, go through the magazines, model their poses and photos. Study how they look at the camera, facial expressions, muscle flexing and notice how the lights are set up, the angles of the shot, make up etc. And practice...practice makes perfect. This time, Roberta wanted the pictures for herself, not just for the contest. And she wanted to show her body better. She reached her goals. And like she said if you want to hit your goals bad enough you will reach them too. How to Shift from Losing Fat into Maintaining Leanness This is the whole point of the Reverse Taper Diet that Roberta followed. Throughout the contests we have noticed that there are basically three ways of eating you can have: Eating too much, results in gaining fat Eating less than you burn, results in losing fat Eating at your energy expenditure, results in maintenance of your current body fat level And we have noticed two other things: The fat loss slows down as you get to lower body fat levels It's important to learn how to transition from eating for fat loss to eating for maintenance and find your sweet spot. This is the issue with the traditional taper diets. You start with low calorie intake and end with even lower...a recipe for disaster. If you eat too low while being lean, you risk binging, overeating and rebounding, thus the name yo-yo dieting. The better way of doing this is by starting with low calorie intake and slowly increasing it as you get closer to your goal. The danger is that it's boring and it takes some time until you see the results. But you can be sure the results will last. At the beginning the fat literally melts away off of your body. Thanks to a lot of water retention you can be losing multiple pounds every week. However, once you get lean, then the frustration starts. You work and diet hard, but you step on a scale and nothing changes. Like Roberta advises, the only thing you can do is to keep going and ditch the scale and only focus on the mirror and the pictures. More tips from Roberta: Day to day there is nothing exciting about fat loss There is no magic pill A pound or two of muscle is enough to make it look different in the mirror You have to enjoy your food and your workouts in order to stick to your diet and routine in the long term If you have to drag yourself to the gym, find a way to like the training Don't wait, waiting forty years for a good looking body is not necessary, why not have it this year? Put the scale away It's never too late
